Assault and Battery
by Thorntons
Summary: The team are reaquainted with Walter Mashburn, as someone is intent on sabotaging his new business venture and the SCU are called in to investigate. A case fiction that precedes events of Red Hot. Although this is set in S3, for the purposes of the story, I'm assuming present day legislation and technology apply.
1. Chapter 1: Crash Landings

**Chapter 1: Crash landings**

Teresa Lisbon had long since learned that there were certain things that spelled trouble, and the recent dearth of cases, combined with an unsettled and bored consultant was a recipe for disaster. The sight of low flying paper planes drifting past her office window was a sure sign that her consultant was just bristling with mischief, and paying scant attention to those cold case files she had asked him to review.

The bored homicide detectives paid lip service to their routine chores, sorting out their expense forms, writing up cases and preparing their submissions for trials, even God help them doing their quota of community outreach programs. Meanwhile Patrick Jane alternated between drinking cups of tea and being generally annoying.

Unable to settle down, he seemed to be full of nervous energy, a sure sign he wasn't sleeping again. Needing an outlet for his creative energy, Patrick Jane experimented with paper planes of increasing aerodynamic complexity as the morning wore on.

"Nice one" Rigsby nodded appreciatively as the latest model glided into Lisbon's office. Even Cho permitted a grin to pass his face as he waited for some response from the office.

"Piranha, both fast and accurate." Jane looked expectantly at the office door, disappointed that his aim hadn't garnered a reaction from Lisbon. He had seen her head tracking the downward trajectory of the plane as it spiralled on to her sofa, but she still wasn't rising to the bait.

Cho and Rigsby exchanged a smile, knowing that this was tantamount to issuing a challenge. Jane had a childish desire to have his expertise in whatever field recognised, and the humble paper plane was no exception.

A slight huff was quickly followed by some rapid hand movements, until a new sleek model was ready to be launched. Eyeing up his target carefully, Jane watched his Merlin glide effortlessly into his leader's office, until it ended up teetering uncertainly on the edge of her desk. His lips pursed in a smile, knowing that Lisbon couldn't ignore that one. Raising his eyebrows slightly as he passed Rigsby's desk, Jane settled himself back in prime position on his sofa in anticipation of Lisbon's reaction.

The resigned sigh as Lisbon leaned forward to examine the offending article was cue for an ear splitting grin from Jane. Cho & Rigsby put their heads down pretending to work, knowing that any moment now Lisbon would be heading in Jane's direction.

"Son of a gun." Lisbon muttered angrily, Jane was making planes out of the cold case report that she had asked him to review. Pushing her chair slowly away from the desk, she raised herself up wearily, just knowing she was setting herself up for another futile confrontation.

Holding the offending article by the tail, like some dead animal, she made her way out to the bullpen, giving Cho and Rigsby a warning glare, before directing a withering look in Jane's direction. "You're supposed to be reading that report, not launching it."

Cho's lips twitched involuntarily, and Rigsby gave up any pretence at working, as he eagerly awaited Jane's response. "Meh, too much bureaucracy - you deal with one piece of paper and another turns up. Just imagine if you never finished anything, it would break the cycle, and bring the system to a halt. It's a revolutionary new concept, someone needs to break the tyranny of the pen pusher - just think how much time and money it would save."

A sardonic smile crossed Lisbon's face. "Perhaps you're right. Those expenses waiting to be authorised were next on my to do list, maybe if I don't sign them off, people will stop putting them in."

Risgby's eyes narrowed, he had a hot date this weekend and had been relying on his expenses being paid.

Umm the old divide and rule tactic. Lisbon didn't normally stoop so low. Jane knew she must be seriously annoyed with him. He racked his brain to see if he had been remotely more annoying than usual. The last case had been closed without further incident; Judge Fitzwilliam had eventually come round to his way of thinking. Jane couldn't see the problem, the case would never have been solved if he hadn't gate crashed the old lady's funeral. For some reason Hightower and Lisbon had taken that particularly badly, they really needed to trust him more.

In frustration Lisbon launched the plane at Jane. "Just read it Einstein." Unpractised as she was in the art of launching paper planes, it took an unexpected detour right into the path of Agent Hightower and Director Bertram, who were rounding the corner just in time to see Lisbon launch the offending article.

"Good to see you're all hard at." Bertram drily noted. "Now Agent Hightower shall we run over those staff budgets again."

Jane could see Lisbon wilting under Hightower's blistering glare, until the senior agent escorted Bertram to the safety of her office.

"Sheepdip! Now look what you've made me do." Lisbon rubbed her temple, feeling the sudden onset of a headache.

"Au contraire my dear Lisbon, I think you'll find you did that entirely by yourself. Everyone knows that a plane should be launched with a steady action, it's all in the arm action, no wonder it went into a tailspin." Jane's face was a picture of innocence when to emphasise the point, he moved his arm backward and forward, as if to launch an imaginary plane, and he watched Lisbon go off into a tailspin of her own.

Jane treated himself to a congratulatory cup of tea, in acknowledgement of a job well done. Lisbon had taken the bait hook line and sinker. Jane would smooth things over with Hightower at some stage, he was starting to get the measure of Madeline Hightower. She was one tough cookie, and he couldn't help but have a sneaking regard for her.

Bertram emerged from Hightower's office and surveyed the scene of industry; heads were down as everyone diligently focused their attention on their screens and papers. Completely unfazed by events Jane calmly tipped his tea cup in Bertram's direction, in acknowledgement of his stare. Bertram turned away irritably; a pragmatist by nature he could put up with a lot from Jane so long as the SCU maintained its stellar rate of closing cases, and Bertram was the recipient of the reflected glory. If that were ever to change, he would have no compunction in terminating Jane's contract.

Rigsby and Cho exchanged looks like two errant schoolboys; Rigsby stood up ready to stretch his legs, and take a break now that the coast was clear, when all of a sudden Hightower emerged from her office. She surveyed the bullpen critically before settling her eagle eyes in Jane's direction; she slowly blinked her hooded eyelids and pursed her lips, weighing up how best to deal with the problem in hand. She knew full well that Lisbon had been suckered in yet again by her consultant, who had them all dancing to his tune. A quick glance at Rigsby, who was frozen to the spot, caused him to grab some random papers and start to read them avidly. A smirk appeared on Madeline's face as she sauntered over to the bullpen with feline grace, her quarry was now firmly in her sights.

Perching against the desk in front of Cho, with Rigsby in front of her and Jane still very much in view, she offered her opening gambit. "Good read Agent Rigsby?"

"Yes Ma'am, latest crime statistics analysis." Rigsby shuffled uncomfortably.

Hightower reached forward taking the papers from Rigsby, turning them upside down before handing them back to him. "They generally make more sense that way up."

Jane openly smiled in approval, she was one cool customer.

Rigsby flushed and put his head down. The ping of the lift announced the return of a slightly flustered Van Pelt from the coffee run, she stopped in her tracks when she saw Hightower looking in her direction. "Come along Agent Van Pelt, I should have guessed you were on a mission of the utmost importance." Grace flushed and instinctively tried to push a wayward lock of hair behind her ear, as soon as she put the tray down. Jane smiled at her unconscious display of guilt, that was a sure sign that she'd met up with O'Laughlin somewhere en route.

Lisbon emerged uncertainly from her office, on hearing Hightower's voice. She shot a wary look in Jane's direction, who just shrugged his shoulders, not knowing where this was leading either.

"As we're enjoying a brief hiatus from the usual crimes, I've enrolled Cho and Rigsby on a team building exercise for this afternoon, and I've arranged for Van Pelt to give a talk on internet security to the Silver Surfers of Sacramento at the local community center."

"Excuse me Ma'am.." Lisbon's words died in her mouth, now was not the time to remind Hightower that it was not her job to hand out assignments. If Lisbon had more control of her team, this wouldn't have happened in the first place.

"Yes Agent Lisbon?" Hightower didn't look unkindly at her, she knew it wasn't Lisbon's fault that Jane was intent on winding everyone up, but this had to be nipped in the bud before it got out of control.

"What do you want Jane and I to do?" Lisbon accepted the situation without demur.

"Well you Agent Lisbon can have a quiet afternoon to catch up on your paperwork, and I'm sure you can think of something interesting to keep Jane occupied." Without another word she turned on her heels, and made her way back to her office, a faint smile of satisfaction lingered on her lips. No doubt everyone had now turned their attention back on to Jane.

"Look what you've done now dude – team building exercise. Thanks a lot Jane." Cho stood with his hands on his hips, a look of disgust on his face. Did Jane know how seriously Rigsby took these courses? Jane didn't have to share a car with Rigsby, and put up with him quoting motivational messages for the next few days.

Van Pelt who was late to this party, and didn't know what was going on, guessed Jane had done something wrong, but so what, it was a chance to get out of the office for a while.

Knowing when she was beat, Lisbon none too sympathetically snapped at the team. "You heard Agent Hightower, now just get on with it."

Lisbon made a substantial dent in her paperwork, despite the gentle purring of Jane, who was stretched out asleep on her sofa. Her mild annoyance at his intrusion, was offset by her relief that he was finally getting some rest, his hyperactivity brought on by lack of sleep caused him to misread situations at times, and Hightower made it perfectly clear who she held responsible.

The purposeful clicking of approaching heels warned her of Hightower's imminent arrival. Lisbon bit her lip apprehensively, finding Jane asleep in her office was hardly likely to go down well, but there wasn't time to wake him. Oh well, things couldn't get any worse, Lisbon hoped in vain that Hightower would walk by. Naturally she didn't. Lisbon looked up apologetically, ready to make her excuses, when Hightower raised her hand to still her, and indicated for Lisbon to follow her out to the bullpen.

"I assume he's not sleeping again. How is he coping in general?" Hightower's concern was genuine; he hadn't been the same since Kristina Frye's abduction. However much she sympathised with Jane, she couldn't send a loose cannon into the field. His flashes of inspiration were coming with a heavy price these days, and it not only reflected badly on Lisbon but on Hightower as well. Hightower had briefly considered making Jane answerable directly to her rather than to Lisbon, but Hightower was a political animal intent on going places, and had ultimately balked at the responsibility of that. At least she was ring fenced from his worst excesses this way, and she had Lisbon's back, for as long as they were closing cases.

"You know, he copes in his own way." Lisbon couldn't say any more than that.

No one really knew what Jane was feeling, or how he was going to react to a situation. Although she knew him better than most, his innermost thoughts were still private. She could count on one hand how many deep personal conversations they had engaged in, neither being inclined to bare their souls publicly. Over time a tacit understanding had developed for coping with each other's moods, which by and large served them both well.

Hightower looked at him doubtfully. "I really want to believe you, but that incident with Judge Fitzwilliam could have been career defining for both of us. We both got carried along by his conjecture with disastrous results, and only just pulled the case around in time. He just seems off his game to me. Maybe we ought to consider a more back seat role for now, keep him out of high profile situations."

"Jane is part of the team Ma'am. We all work the case. It wouldn't work any other way. I wouldn't want it to work any other way." Lisbon sighed heavily, aware of the commitment she was taking on.

Hightower gave her a light squeeze of her shoulder before turning away. "As you wish Lisbon, I'll cover your back for as long as I can."

Lisbon quietly made her way back to her office, trying not to rouse Jane, and started back on her paperwork.

"Thanks." A faint mutter came from the sofa, the eyes were still closed but a faint smile crossed the lips.

"I should have known you'd be listening in. Don't let us down this time Jane, I mean it. Just think about what you're doing for once." Lisbon appealed to his better nature, with little hope of making a breakthrough.

A silent shrug preceded the gentle purr of sleep. Lisbon shook her head in resignation; he really would get her sacked one day. At least he was getting some much needed rest in the white noise of the bullpen.

It was one of life's ironies that Jane felt curiously secure with the buzz of proceedings going on around him; it was much more relaxing for him than the recriminatory silence of the night. In fact it was one of the reasons why Jane would have the TV on most of the night in his motel room, it was a distraction, however mindless the topic. His colleagues would be quite surprised how in touch he was with popular culture. Jane had endless trivia stored away in his memory palace; in his quest for sleep he was quite indiscriminate in his habits.

* * *

Refreshed from his sleep Jane was altogether more laid back the following day, he stopped at Marie's on the way in and arrived bearing peace offerings for everyone. Rigsby leapt on the donuts immediately, the way to his heart was through his stomach. Cho, who had been traumatised by the bonding exercises, was less forgiving and ignored the peace offering.

Jane tapped lightly on Lisbon's door, and paused seeing she was on the phone. He waved the bag in front of her to catch her attention, and then withdrew with a smile.

Cho finally broke the ice. "New case?"

"Sounds like it, I'm sure all will be revealed." Jane took a sip of his tea; it would be good to have something new to work on, these days confined to the office made him restless.

Lisbon peered eagerly into the bag that Jane had deposited on her desk, she'd skipped breakfast again so it was most timely, and they had a two hour drive ahead of them to Marin County. She couldn't suppress a slight buzz of excitement at the prospect of crossing swords with Walter Mashburn again. There was no denying the spark between them, and he was one of the few people Jane regarded as an equal. Walter's PA Nita Kapoor had contacted the CBI specifically requesting Lisbon's team. An accident on one of Walter's new ventures had resulted in a death, and foul play was suspected.

Glancing round quickly to make sure no one was watching, Lisbon quickly checked her appearance in her mirror, and re-applied a light coloured lipstick. She didn't want to look too obvious after all. After getting her things together she went out into the bullpen."Saddle up everyone, we've got a new case. Marin County, Volta Autonomics. Suspicious death on the test track, one of the autonomous cars unexpectedly veered off course killing someone trackside."

"Was the driver hurt?" Rigsby glared at Jane accusingly, no need to snort like that, he knew the cars were driverless but assumed someone would have been in the vehicle monitoring performance.

"No the car was monitored remotely, they don't know what caused the crash yet. Van Pelt, I want you to liaise with the software engineers to see what data is available." Lisbon knew Grace was best suited to deal with this. While none of them were exactly dummies, 'geek speak' was sometimes hard for the uninitiated to follow. Personally she always suspected it was a bit like the medical and legal professions, they created their own mumbo jumbo to elevate their status, and to deter outsiders from looking in too closely. Although in fairness Van Pelt never let the technical intricacies obscure the facts, she had a real grasp for what was relevant.

Jane observed Lisbon critically as she drove, her makeup such as it was had been freshened up, and there had been a definite bounce in her step on the way to the car park. A quick look at the notes Van Pelt handed to him on the way out explained it all. Volta Autonomics was the latest plaything of one Walter Mashburn. Interesting that she hadn't mentioned Mashburn by name, she was playing it cool for now.

"So Walter Mashburn, Lisbon." There was a definite hesitation before she answered.

"Yeah, what of it?" Lisbon shuffled defensively in her seat.

"Just wondering is he the good or the bad guy this time?" Much as Jane liked Walter, he knew Walter was hardly a choir boy. Maybe that was part of his appeal to someone as strait laced as Lisbon. Perhaps she had a secret penchant for bad boys. Jane smiled as he settled down to read the case in full, he had a feeling he was going to enjoy this case.


	2. Chapter 2 : Toy Town

**Chapter 2 : Toytown**

Volta Autonomics, or VA as it was commonly known, was situated on the relatively flat coastal plains outside San Rafael looking straight over the bay, allowing Walter to come and go in his speedboat. There were few sites that afforded the space for a test track, and also room for a major industrial complex. So it had caused some controversy, when Mashburn had pulled strings to get the go ahead to develop the reclaimed marshlands previously designated as a conservation area.

From what Jane could make out there were two distinct arms to the operation, the electric battery site and the electric car division. Initially one site had been set up to service the other, but there were new and diverse opportunities for the battery division, as energy storage was coming to the fore with the expansion of sustainable energy sources. California was particularly suited to solar energy because of the high insolation of the region, but the problem was storing the energy generated. VA had developed a system of energy storage that could smooth the output of renewable energy sources and feed surplus energy back into the grid to smooth out demand at peak times.

Walter had finally found a challenge that sufficiently interested him to eschew his playboy lifestyle, but it also set him on a contentious path against the mighty carbon lobby, who had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Although by no means particularly interested in technology, Jane had to admit that he was more than curious about this latest project and in particular Walter's motivation. With his love for private jets, speed boats and fast cars, Walter wasn't a person that one would automatically associate with green projects.

Jane's eyes lit up at the sight of the prototype vehicles lined up outside the prestigious headquarters. There was a whole range of vehicles ranging from sleek sedans, small delivery vehicles, to some eye catching little bubble cars in the distinctive VA midnight blue livery with silver lettering.

"Welcome to toy town." Lisbon looked across at him with a wry smile, knowing she was going to have her hands full handling Walter and Jane. Her consultant was going to be like a kid in a candy shop with all these cars, she just knew he was going to be into everything. Then you could multiply that by three when Cho and Rigsby arrived, thank heavens she had Van Pelt to rely on.

No sooner had they got out of their car than a driverless buggy turned into the car park and pulled up alongside them. A voice came over the speakers in the buggy."Welcome to VA industries. Please enter the vehicle and press Go when you're ready to proceed." Jane circled the driverless buggy appreciatively, noting the concession to Mashburn's vanity with the cheeky 'Walter's Jalopy' emblazoned on the front wing.

Jane bowed theatrically. "Your carriage awaits Milady." He held out his hand and guided her to the front seat, before walking round to take his place beside her.

"Shall I do the honours?" He looked mischievously in her direction as his hand hovered above the Go button. She shook her head in resignation, as if she had any choice in the matter.

"Journey commencing." The recorded voice announced, and the seat belts automatically came across their laps as the vehicle slowly ramped up in speed. The buggy took them on a circuitous route around the complex, giving them an ongoing commentary of where they were. It branched off in the direction of the test track and suddenly sped up as it went down the slipway onto the figure of eight track. Before long they were speeding round the track, Jane was grinning like the Cheshire cat and once Lisbon had overcome her initial misgivings, she too was laughing as her hair flew back in the wind as they whizzed round. Eventually the vehicle delivered them to the pit stop where Walter was waiting for them with a self satisfied smile on his face.

Dressed in a red racing suit, Walter looked undeniably dashing as he walked forward to greet them. Ah Patrick, and Agent…"he hesitated briefly as if struggling to remember her name.

"Lisbon." Jane grinned as he grasped Walter's welcoming hand, and then looked quickly between Mashburn and Lisbon to examine the body language.

"Mr Mashburn." Lisbon politely proffered her hand.

"Walter please, Agent Lisbon - Mr Mashburn is my mother."

Despite his amusement at the display of formality between them, Jane decided to move matters along. "Walter that was quite a welcome, so this is where the accident happened?"

True to form Lisbon piped up. "You do realise that this is technically a crime scene Mr Mashburn?"

Mashburn was patently disappointed that his carefully orchestrated welcome hadn't been acknowledged by Lisbon. "Why Teresa, forensics came and gave us the all clear this morning, and I thought you'd want to come straight to the site. I know you like to be in the driving seat."

He exchanged an amused look with Jane before mollifying Lisbon's concerns. "We've handed over footage of the accident to forensics, who assured us they had everything they needed. I believe your agent Van Pelt is already talking to our performance engineers."

"So what do you think?" Mashburn swept his arm towards his array of cars.

Jane's eyes twinkled as he waited for Lisbon to bite. "Very impressive Mr ..."

"Walter, please." Mashburn interjected.

"Very impressive Walter, but we're not here to admire your toys." Despite her words Lisbon's eyes inevitably drifted towards the impressive selection of cars. Her traitorous eyes settled on the snazzy red convertible just long enough for Mashburn to pick up on it.

"I'm rather partial to that one myself; perhaps I can take you out for a spin later." Walter lowered his voice as he tried to tempt Lisbon.

"Go on Lisbon, you know you want to. It's just what you need to blow the cobwebs out and bring a bit of empty glamour to your life." Jane watched them both carefully to check how they reacted, amused at the cautious interplay going on between them.

"Do I have to remind everyone we're here to investigate a crime?" The seriousness of her voice belied the twitching of her lips, as she struggled to keep her work face in place.

"Always work Teresa. One day you'll run out of excuses to run away, but until then I suppose you'll want to get on with things." Walter picked up a handset and pressed a few buttons to summon the buggy back from the parking lot. He reverted to a more businesslike manner, like a man who has concluded he has better things to do with his time than pursue a lost cause at this juncture. "As you can see from the taped off area, the accident took place over there. It was all recorded so everything will be put at your disposal. Unless there is anything else you want to look at here, the buggy will take you back round to the main entrance. Just ask for Nita when you arrive, and I'll catch up with you again shortly."

Needless to say in the interests of thoroughness Lisbon insisted on walking over to the crime scene to get her bearings fully. By time she and Jane got back to the buggy, Mashburn was driving one of the cars around the test track, with the engineers taking measurements on the sidelines.

* * *

They settled down into the buggy which had been pre-programmed to take them to their destination. The main headquarters had a grandstand view of the test track, no doubt affording Mashburn a view of proceedings from his office. The production facilities were set back in the distance, with the state of the art research and development area nearby.

The sleek reception area of the headquarters provided a contemporary setting befitting a dynamic corporation. Jane and Lisbon were taking in some of the displays, when a businesslike woman approached them. The name badge confirmed she was Nita Kapoor. In her late twenties with a serious air to her, she hid her striking looks behind a pair of oversized glasses; her sleek hair was swept up into a no fuss knot that conveyed an air of quiet competence.

Lisbon felt curiously shabby in the presence of the chic executive, everything about her was studied and planned, and nothing was left to chance. Feeling slightly dishevelled with her windblown hair after the buggy ride, Lisbon felt like some shaggy mutt in comparison to Nita Kapoor's well groomed Afghan hound.

Nita exuded the quiet confidence of somebody perfectly in control, extending a manicured hand to Lisbon she greeted them cordially. "Agent Lisbon, Mr Jane, so good to meet you. Please come with me. Mr Mashburn will join us shortly. I've taken the liberty of arranging some refreshments while we start going through the preliminaries."

Lisbon's stomach rumbled at the mere mention of food, she looked guiltily at Nita who affected to ignore it, although Jane's smirk made it perfectly clear everyone had heard it. Lisbon couldn't help but compare her generic J C Penny work suit and comfortable loafers with the simple but classic cut of Nita's designer outfit. For some reason Nita made her feel inexplicably gauche, and made Lisbon wonder why on earth was Walter flirting with her, when he was routinely mixing with such sophisticated company.

Lisbon felt like she was just a diversion from the wrong side of the tracks for Walter. In the way that some men chatted up cocktail waitresses, did Walter just see her as a challenge to be notched up on his bedpost? Lisbon started to get inexplicably annoyed about it all; thinking that she had deluded herself into thinking Walter was genuinely interested in her. She was a professional in her own right and was damned well going to prove it. No one was going to sweet talk her into getting diverted off track, and that included Patrick Jane.

Her ominous look in Jane's direction didn't go unnoticed by the consultant, who had seen Lisbon visibly deflate in Nita's company. Not normally insecure, Jane detected a frisson of antagonism from Lisbon towards the urbane executive that was quite unwarranted. He recognised that set look on Lisbon's face, a sure sign that she meant business.

The damaged intensity that Walter had picked up on was all part of her charm. Feisty, independent and slightly acerbic at times, Lisbon exuded a straightforward honesty. She by no means lived up to the St Teresa moniker; her ready wit and acid tongue could cut a man down at the knees. Although quick to anger and lash out when people failed to deliver, she was unstintingly loyal to those she worked with. Alas, this often proved to be her Achilles heel and frequently brought Lisbon to the attention of her superiors for all the wrong reasons.

Jane knew that Walter was genuinely fascinated by her, and the fact that she had little regard for Walter's position was part of the appeal. Walter was a chameleon, he would adapt to any surroundings, but like Jane he never forgot his humble beginnings. Above all Jane suspected Walter was bored - of course he could snap his fingers, and people attracted by his wealth and power would flock to him, but where was the challenge in that?

Nita's cool detachment would mean nothing to Walter, he would esteem and respect her as an colleague but his interest went no further. You didn't get to be a billionaire by mixing business and pleasure. Jane considered a glamorous escapade would be good for Lisbon, if she would just let her guard down for once.

Jane wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it all, the affection he felt for Lisbon by no means entitled him to interfere with her private life, and besides he had unfinished business to deal with. It was difficult to pin down his feelings for Lisbon, his day was brighter for seeing her, he delighted in being admonished by her, and he respected her professionally, but he couldn't allow himself to be distracted with so much at stake.

Nita answered their questions openly and efficiently, her professional veneer never slipped. It was a consummate performance, which Jane noted revealed little about the person behind the facade. The victim, Dr Aloysius Chong, was a renowned expert in his field, and had been conducting trials on the latest VA prototype that Walter had mischievously codenamed Badboy. It was Walter's private joke, and it wound up the boffins who were prone to more esoteric flights of fancy, preferring more grandiose names like Hermes, Mercury or Pegasus. Even Nita shared a smile when she had to call the car Badboy.

The video footage showed Chong observing an unremarkable test session, when for some reason the car inexplicably veered off the track. He hadn't stood a chance. It was either a random accident or a very deliberate act of cold blooded murder.

After a few preliminary enquiries Jane typically lost interest in the technical detail, preferring to concentrate on the human side of events. In Jane's mind it was the motive that counted not the technical minutiae, find the motive and you would find the killer.

Unnoticed by the others Walter had slipped into the room, and was helping himself to some food from the buffet. Never one to miss out on a free meal, Jane drifted over to join Walter, while Lisbon continued her questioning of Nita. There was a photograph of Walter with 'the Governator' on the wall; both were wearing hard hats, hi viz vests and cheesy grins for the camera. Jane looked enquiringly at Walter.

"One of the last things Arnie did before he stepped down, was approving the reclamation of the marshlands for development. I know a lot of people read things into that, but it took a lot of courage to do that, and the high tech jobs created have bolstered the local economy." Walter explained.

"Looks like you were both having fun." Jane was amused by them posing leaning on their spades.

"We invited him back to mark the start of the building works. What can I say he's a natural performer? Besides there's no such thing as bad publicity." Walter shrugged.

"See what you're missing out on Lisbon, rubbing shoulders with such exalted company." Jane teased gently.

"Met him when I was a rookie detective." She responded dismissively. Jane and Mashburn were suddenly interested. "I got some award, anyhow what's that got to do with anything?" Lisbon returned to the job in hand.

"So what do you think?" Mashburn's face was more serious now.

"Murder." Jane replied without hesitation.

"We don't know that until all the data has been collated." Lisbon added reprovingly, although she had no doubt that Jane was right on that score.

"Murder. The question is why Walter? Is it personal or is Dr Chong just collateral damage?" Jane looked Mashburn straight in the eye, trying to get a read on him.

"Surely that is for you to divine Patrick? Obviously we suspect foul play; there is no reason why the vehicle would just veer off the track." Walter frowned, he had known Chong for years and had taken the news badly.

"Who had control of the vehicle Walter?" Lisbon needed to get more background on the practicalities of the case.

"Dr Chong had the controller; he could stop and start the sequence." Walter replied.

"And that was the only controller?" Lisbon pursued her line of enquiry.

"To the best of my knowledge, not that I've asked the question." Walter was starting to see the way Lisbon's mind was working.

"So if there were a second controller, they could override the first." Lisbon was thinking out loud, while Jane looked on approvingly.

"In theory, but the command data is limited, it should just initiate or end a routine. Aloysius wasn't actually driving the car." All three of them were bouncing ideas around now.

Jane butted in. "So how do you programme the routines?"

"For simplicity they are programmed wirelessly over the network, but you have to know the protocols." The implications of the questions were starting to unsettle Walter.

"So theoretically the programme could have been tampered with remotely?" Lisbon took up the thread.

"In theory, but why?" Walter already knew the answer to that but was trying to buy some thinking time.

"So why can't we just check the programme and see if it has been tampered with?" It seemed obvious to Lisbon.

Jane shook his head. "It can be reprogrammed remotely as well; no doubt any evidence will have been removed by now."

"Where's the vehicle now?" Lisbon wanted to make sure it couldn't be tampered with again.

"Forensics took it away, but Patrick is right, it could have been reprogrammed in the interval between the crash and being towed away. The whole site is covered by a wireless network; anyone with the correct permissions could have modified the programme." Walter frowned as the implications of it all slowly sank in.

"Eh Voila, murder Lisbon." Jane pronounced smugly before wandering off back in the direction of the buffet.

Walter turned decisively to Nita. "Can you let the research team know that Patrick and Teresa will want to conduct some interviews down there."

"Of course Mr Mashburn." Nita disappeared into a side office to make the arrangements.

"A very capable woman, if I may say so Walter." Jane commented approvingly.

"Yes I often think she could run the place if I wasn't here, she knows everything." Walter acknowledged.

"I must say she's not what I expected." Lisbon ventured.

"Really Teresa, you disappoint me. You thought I'd have some trophy assistant? You don't get on in business by mixing business and pleasure. Nita's got one of the best business brains I've come across; she should be running her own show really." Walter knew Lisbon saw him a as a playboy, but he was deadly serious about his business concerns, no matter how superficial a front he put up.

Lisbon had the good grace to look embarrassed, she of all people shouldn't have stereotyped Nita. With the necessary arrangements in place, Nita escorted Jane and Lisbon to the front of the building where the buggy awaited. Feeling guilty about her earlier attitude, Lisbon tried to engage Nita in small talk, but for all her politeness Nita gave little away.

"Interesting woman, still waters run deep."Jane cocked an eye at Lisbon waiting the response.

"What the great Patrick Jane can't penetrate the ice maiden's armour?" Lisbon let slip without thinking.

Jane smirked "Ice maiden? I'm not so sure, there is a fire burning there, but it's very controlled. I can't get a read on her at the moment, but there's more to her than meets the eye."

Lisbon leapt on that with indecent haste. "I'll get Cho on to that to see what he can uncover." Catching Jane's amused look she railed defensively. "What?"

"Nothing." Jane murmured as he looked away. Who knew Lisbon would be so insecure? Normally she was all for defending the sisterhood. Returning his thoughts to the case, he started to weigh up the possibilities. Was this down to some petty professional jealousy? Or part of a long term strategy to destabilise VA? Of course you could never discount the possibility that one of Walter's thwarted business rivals was seeking some form of revenge. All things were possible, and without inspiration there was no alternative to going through them all systematically.


	3. Chapter 3 : Out of Control

**Chapter 3: Out of control**

Lisbon sighed forbearingly when Hightower's name flashed up on her phone. Her first reaction was to backtrack to recall if she, or more pertinently her errant consultant, had done anything new to apologise for. Umm... so far, so good. There were no new misdemeanours that sprang to mind, well none that she knew of at any rate. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked accusingly in Jane's direction.

"Ah Lisbon, glad I've caught you. What do you know about Mashburn and his new project? Bertram's getting a lot of heat about this. There are some very influential people leaning on him, who'd be more than happy to see Mashburn take a fall. There's even talk of the FBI taking over the case." Hightower was weighing up the pros and cons of the situation, wondering whether it was worth fighting to keep the case.

"But Mashburn came to us, he asked for our help." Lisbon was loathe to let the case go, although her instincts told her she would regret it.

"I know Lisbon, but you know how it goes, wheels within wheels... Bertram will fold at the first sign of trouble. If we keep the case, I need your assurance that you're on top of things. Any trouble, I need to know straight away. Is that understood?" Hightower deftly shifted the onus back on Lisbon to perform.

"Yes Ma'am. We've just got some interviews to conduct, then we'll get straight back to Mashburn." Lisbon grimaced as she put her phone down, Jane in toy town what could possibly go wrong?

Jane immediately latched on to the fact that the big guns were in play, and he didn't need his pseudo -psychic antennae to tell him there was a lot more to this than met the eye. Sadly he suspected Chong's untimely death was just a precursor of things to come. Seeing Lisbon's worried look he took a stab at reassuring her. "Don't worry Lisbon, no one will want to touch this case, it's just hot air from Bertram. I mean, who's going to want to stick their necks out on something as contentious as this?"

"Well that's not exactly comforting, as it's my neck on the line." The little furrow between her eyes deepened.

"Walter's messing with some powerful people here, Chong's death may only be the start of things." Jane warned as they entered the research centre.

* * *

They were met by Dr Tim Barker, who called in the rest of the team to join them. Walter hadn't been afraid to harness the creative abilities of his motley team of technologists, who without his verve and leadership may have been inclined to get bogged down in the minutiae of the research, without seeing the bigger picture. Walter's can do attitude invigorated them, and swept aside any tendency for inertia from the more cautious elements of the team.

Barker naturally assumed the lead role. "Nita has told us to give you our full co-operation, but frankly I'm at a loss how we can help you. We're forensically analysing the technical data for clues, and it hardly makes easy reading even for the initiated." Barker finished with a patronising smile.

Jane guessed that was code for _you wouldn't understand if we told you_ , and Barker's obvious disdain of their abilities immediately rubbed Jane up the wrong way. Lisbon's heart sank as she saw the slight smirk appear on Jane's face.

"Well of course we're not going to be delving into the technicalities, but I can see just from looking round this table that you're hiding something." Jane's eyes slowly but deliberately went around the table, he watched the staff shuffle uncomfortably under his gaze before returning his attention to an increasingly irritated Barker. Again a look of amusement crossed the consultant's face. "So Tim, you didn't have much time for Chong did you?"

"Dr Barker, please..."

"Oh come, now is not the time to stand on ceremony Tim, unless of course you're trying to divert attention away from the question." Content that he had scored his first bite, Jane waited to see what he could reel in.

"Nothing of the sort. I had a perfectly good working relationship with Chong. He had his ways, but you just got used to them." Barker countered defensively.

Jane perused the rest of the group, there were a few interesting candidates.

The obvious misfit, most probably brilliant but without the social skills to ascend the greasy pole, shuffled restlessly in his chair as he struggled with his latest conundrum, having already lost interest in proceedings.

The earnest young engineer hiding behind owlish glasses, with his hair neatly parted with geometric precision, had been born middle aged. Fun wasn't a word that featured highly in his vocabulary.

Then there was the joker of the pack, a mercurial character, more hip than the others, quick on the uptake but with a tendency to cut corners.

Finally Jane turned his attention to the lank haired young woman, who was picking at her nails nervously. A quick glance at her ID badge identified her. "Lucia, you're looking very unsettled. For some reason you can't look at your colleagues. I'd hazard a guess that either you've got a guilty conscience or you know who is guilty."

Lucia looked in Dr Barker's direction for guidance. Jane let it go for now, but it was duly noted. Guessing Lucia would just go into her shell if he pushed her, Jane looked to Lisbon to take up the thread.

Lisbon adopted a more conciliatory tone."Lucia how long had you worked with Dr Chong?"

"About 4 months on this latest project, I'm the software engineer responsible for the user interface." Lucia snuck a furtive glance at Barker to make sure she hadn't said too much.

Jane's ears pricked up at that point. "Excellent. You wouldn't be able give us a demonstration of the interface would you? You know, just a dummies guide for coppers." For some reason Lisbon already had a very bad feeling about this.

Lucia looked questioningly for approval "I..er... guess I could?"

Barker gave a quick nod, apart from wasting their time he couldn't see what harm it would do. Lucia pulled out her tablet controller and showed it to Jane.

It was a simple menu based interface, the available vehicles were listed on the home page, and then by selecting one of the vehicles you worked through the subsequent menus indicating software status, current operating mode until eventually you got to the route page. Using a stylus pen on the screen map, Lucia demonstrated how to define a route by marking up the intersections with a stylus and the interface joined the dots. Every stage of the route could be programmed for speed, and driving style according to the application.

"Go on Lucia, show us how it works." Jane bestowed one of his cheesy grins on her, the type that disarmed the less cynical members of the fairer sex. Lisbon just rolled her eyes, knowing in her bones that no good would come of this.

Encouraged by Jane's obvious interest, Lucia was happy to oblige. " If you look out of the window, and watch that bubble car on the right hand side of the car park, when I send the command string, it will follow the programmed sequence. I just need to put it into the right operating mode beforehand." Jane was almost bumping into her, as he followed her to the window like an overexcited child, he peered closely over her shoulder committing the entire procedure to his memory palace.

"Lisbon, Lisbon come look at this." His excitement was genuine, there was still something of the child about Jane. Despite her best efforts to affect disinterest, even Lisbon was secretly fascinated watching the vehicle follow the prescribed loop on the controller screen.

"That looks simple, can I have a go?" Jane's puppy dog eyes worked his charm on Lucia, even Barker's cynicism was eroded by the blatant admiration of their handiwork. After all everyone likes to be appreciated.

"Well I suppose you can't do much harm." Barker muttered.

Jane proceeded to draw out a new route, with Lucia looking over his shoulder. Although he had taken in her every action and knew exactly what to do, for the sake of appearances he kept asking her to check everything. He dutifully programmed the speed at a level that even Lisbon couldn't complain about, before turning away from Lucia with a glint in his eye, and adding a final flourish before he initiated the new programme. Lucia's eyes popped like saucers when she realised what he'd done, there was a look of panic in Barker's direction.

Holding the pad tightly to his chest, to stop any attempt to take it away from him, Jane watched with childish glee as the car veered across the lawn and ended up teetering on the edge of the sunken pool, exactly as Jane had drawn it.

Lisbon's head shot from the car and then back to her rather smug consultant. How she wanted to wipe that smile off his face. With her face contorted with anger, she hissed accusingly "What the hell have you done that for?"

"To show just how easy it would have been to kill Chong. My guess is that anyone here with the required access could have tampered with the data." It was blindingly obvious, Jane was quite disappointed Lisbon had to ask the question.

"It doesn't work like that. The vehicle was in test mode, the program couldn't be overridden like that." Barker blustered angrily, unaware of Lucia's growing unease.

"But people who know what they're doing could easily change that remotely, couldn't they Lucia? Ergo any one of you could be the murderer." Jane concluded triumphantly.

"That's it, I've had enough of this nonsense. Out!" Barker pointed at the door.

Not remotely bothered, Jane exited the stage with a wave and a smile at the assembled team. Lisbon groaned inwardly when she saw Barker pick up the phone, more damned paperwork to fill in when she got back to base.

"So what exactly did that prove jackass." Lisbon snarled leading the way out. Jane smiled appreciatively at the sight of her hips rhythmically working from side to side, of all her walks her angry one was quite his favourite, it was poetry in motion.

"It proved that Barker has no sense of humour for starters." Jane looked warily when he noticed the vein pulsing in her temple, contemplating whether evasive action would be required. She really did look quite vexed.

* * *

As they started to cross the road to check on the precariously balanced vehicle, they spotted a car speeding towards them, necessitating some quick thinking from Jane. Lisbon dusted herself down irritably. Honestly Jane was such a drama queen, had it really been necessary for Jane to fling her down on the ground? Lisbon looked at the green stains on her knees before transferring her venomous glare in Jane's direction.

Oblivious to, or at any rate ignoring her animosity, Jane pointed after the receding car. "See Lisbon point proved, that was deliberate. Those aren't cars they're weapons of destruction. One of those people is the killer, the question is why?"

"Well if you hadn't gotten us thrown out of there, we might have been able to find out." Lisbon snarked.

"Meh, they weren't going to talk in front of Barker. The only way to get them to spill is by catching them one by one." Jane looked up as a red convertible pulled up, he grinned when he saw Mashburn shake his head at the sight of the car teetering a mere inch away from disaster. Leaving Lisbon in his wake, he ambled over to meet Mashburn.

"I suppose I should be grateful there's no cliffs around here" Mashburn mumbled, remembering his previous encounter with Jane.

"I'm impressed Walter, truly remarkable accuracy. I drew the line right up to the edge of the water, and that's precisely where it stopped."

"Well I suppose that's something." A faint smile crossed Mashburn's lips, Nita had told him Barker was incandescent when he'd called to complain.

"Sorry about that Walter." Lisbon jerked her head in the direction of the car. "But it has illustrated Jane's theory about how easily it could be programmed. I mean Jane hardly knows how to turn on his mobile phone, and he got the hang of it straight away. We'll need to conduct individual interviews tomorrow, preferably with Dr Barker well out of sight."

Mashburn nodded slowly, the logic of the argument was irrefutable.

"One of your cars buzzed us Walter, and came dangerously close to hitting us. It wasn't an accident." Jane added, as if further proof was needed.

"We need to know everyone who has access to a controller." Lisbon paused before addressing a nagging suspicion. "How do you call the cars Walter? Maybe you had something to hide, and thought that we would be easier to manipulate than the FBI."

"Am I a suspect again? - I thought we were past that now Teresa." Mashburn's disappointment was evident.

"Just doing my job Walter, chasing down every lead." Lisbon's face set in grim determination.

Feeling the tension in the air, Jane changed the subject. "So what's with the name Walter, why isn't it Mashburn Autonomics?"

"We took over a fledgling company and the name Volta stuck. It's named after the man credited with inventing the battery, so it seemed pertinent to leave it." Mashburn turned his attention back to Jane.

"Umm. You sure there isn't another reason?" Jane knew men like Walter liked to have their name in lights normally.

"Well it's a risky business, pays not to have any one person too prominent, besides the shareholders wouldn't like it." Walter added as an afterthought.

Jane raised his eyebrows. "Shareholders?"

"As I say it's a risky business, it sometimes pays to raise outside capital." Mashburn knew that sharing the risk, meant sharing the profits, but also protected against any losses. It was a highly politicised industry, and he was well aware a change of government policy could adversely affect them.

"But don't shareholders have rights?" Jane wasn't buying this story.

Mashburn shrugged noncommittally "Nothing I can't deal with." Despite the innocent look on his face, Jane knew Walter would have no compunction ousting anyone who stood in his way. However it might be worth taking a look at the list of investors when they got back.

Jane surveyed the site once more, before fixing Mashburn with a questioning look."I didn't have you down as saviour of the planet. Why are you doing this?"

Mashburn reverted back to salesman mode. "Electric cars are the way forward. All the respiratory illnesses attributable to polluting vehicles would be a thing of the past. Not to mention how quiet they are, the poor are worst affected by noise and chemical pollution, it could transform inner city life. Besides just imagine having to pay no more gas bills, you can just recharge your car overnight."

"But you still have to generate the power - there's still a carbon footprint."Jane persisted.

"Yes but if you can generate your own solar power, and then store it, you can practically use your car for free. The range on these vehicles is over 200 miles on a full charge, the performance is comparable with the best production cars at 0 to 60 in 6 seconds." Mashburn was genuinely enthused about his project.

"You sell a good story Walter, but what's in it for you? Making cars and playing with prototypes is one thing, but you'll soon get bored again." Jane had no doubt Mashburn's interest would soon wane, he may enjoy the challenge of setting things up, but the day to day operational side of the business wasn't for Walter.

Mashburn smiled enigmatically. "There are huge challenges ahead, but we have solutions. I'm hosting a conference tomorrow, why don't you come by to the reception and listen to my keynote speech. I'll be tied up most of tomorrow, but Nita will look after you. Don't worry Barker is preparing for the conference with me, so he'll be out of your hair all day."

Lisbon decided it was time to wrap things up."Look it's getting late now, and we need to get back. We need unrestricted access to the team tomorrow, and we also need to find out why my boss is getting so much heat about this case. Someone is very keen to lay the blame on you, if you can think of anyone who you've upset, now would be the time to tell us."

Walter looked a bit sheepish."I'm afraid you don't make deals without making the odd enemy Teresa. For every winner there's a loser, it goes with the territory."

The journey back was uncharacteristically quiet, Jane could tell Lisbon was troubled.

"You're wrong Lisbon. Walter has many things to hide, but he would never put you in danger. Whoever is messing with the cars, it's not Walter." Jane settled down for a nap, content with a good day's work.


	4. Chapter 4 : Open Secrets

**Chapter 4: Open Secrets**

Rigsby carefully deposited a coffee on Van Pelt's desk in anticipation of her arrival, before turning round to see Cho just shaking his head. "It was my turn." Rigsby said defensively. Cho just raised a eyebrow but kept his thoughts to himself. When was Rigsby going to accept Van Pelt had moved on?

The red head emerged from the elevator looking a bit flustered running late again, it was starting to be a habit. Craig could be very persuasive, and still in the first flush of lust Van Pelt just lost track of the time. Hastily tidying up the loose tendrils of hair, she looked gratefully at Rigsby when she saw the coffee on her desk.

"Morning Boss." Rigsby was indefatigably cheerful in the mornings. Cho barely raised his eyes in time to catch Lisbon sweeping past, just acknowledging them with a perfunctory grunt. Inevitably Cho's eyes drifted to the consultant's couch, where Patrick Jane was partaking of his tea with his usual Zen like calm.

"What did you do this time?" Cho didn't doubt the source of Lisbon's ill humour.

Jane affected a look of innocence. "Nothing in particular, anyhow it's all in hand Mashburn was perfectly understanding about the car."

"It must be serious." Rigsby looked over to Lisbon's office where their leader was re-arranging her desk.

"Why do you always have to jump to conclusions? Apart from a slightly bruised ego there was no damage done." Seeing Cho and Rigsby approaching, eager to hear about his latest exploit, Jane knew he was going to have to spill the beans.

"So why's she so mad, if Mashburn hasn't complained?" Cho grimaced at the sight of Lisbon straightening her pictures - that inevitably spelt trouble for the team.

"Pressure from above, Bertram's giving Hightower a hard time, so in turn she's giving Lisbon a hard time - and speak of the devil..." Jane tipped his cup in Hightower's direction as she passed by on her way to Lisbon's office. No response was forthcoming.

The door snapped firmly closed. Opting to remain standing to assert her authority, Hightower didn't pull her punches."I thought we had an agreement, if _he_ so much as sneezes I want to know about it. Now I find out he's crashed one of the goddamned cars."

"May I ask how you found out Ma'am? I know for a fact Mashburn hasn't complained." Lisbon couldn't see Nita lodging a complaint without Mashburn's approval, so who had let the proverbial cat out of the bag?

"That's really not the point Agent Lisbon, it doesn't matter how they found out. I would prefer to hear it from you rather than Bertram. It made me look as if I'm not in control of the situation." Hightower hated Bertram having one up on her, but conceded it was strange how he'd got to hear about the incident first. Sometimes she wondered just who's side Bertram was on.

Lisbon averted her eyes guiltily, knowing she should have called Hightower last night. She'd heard through the grapevine that Hightower was attempting a last ditch reconciliation with her husband, and she didn't want to be the one to disturb her at home. Judging by Hightower's mood it hadn't gone well.

Hightower looked out into the bullpen her eyes inevitably settling on Jane. "Are you sure he's up to this? I know it's all part of his plan messing with people, but he just seems so wired at the moment. He has precious little sense of propriety at the best of times, but it's as if something has shutdown in him at the moment, he simply has no regard for consequences. Frankly I'm wondering whether he needs therapy."

"I disagree Ma'am. He's already made a breakthrough. If you want to solve this quickly Jane's your man. Besides Mashburn specifically asked for him." Lisbon knew full well how Jane would react to the suggestion of therapy. Besides any would be therapist would more than likely need help themselves after a session with Patrick Jane.

"Well now that you mention it, that in itself poses another problem. Mashburn can't go round picking his own investigators, when he hasn't been absolved of complicity himself." Hightower was increasingly wary of the connection between Mashburn and the SCU, what if he was orchestrating everything?

"Jane's convinced Mashburn didn't do it; although he's clearly hiding something, most likely some shady business deal. Although the killing is an inside job, we think this goes beyond some petty professional jealousy. Whoever did this tried to put the frighteners on us by buzzing us with one of the cars. " Lisbon belatedly revealed.

Hightower frowned "Why didn't you tell me this before? That puts a whole different complexion on things. I'll leave it with you for now Lisbon, but don't forget if Jane messes up it's you in the firing line."

* * *

Sensing trouble afoot, the team wisely applied themselves to the task in hand until Lisbon was ready to put in an appearance. At Lisbon's request Van Pelt had been looking into Nita Kapoor's background, and it made interesting reading.

A MBA/computer science graduate she was perfectly suited for her role at VA. A spell abroad following an early marriage, saw her taking further studies while her husband Vijay set up his business in Dubai. They were very much the golden couple, and the future looked rosy until it all came crashing down around Nita, when her husband was killed in an unexplained explosion on his power boat. By all accounts he had been sailing close to the wind with some of his activities, and the suspicion was that he had upset the wrong people.

It left Nita high and dry. Instead of looking forward to a jet setting life, she not only had to cope with the grief of her loss, but also had to make her own way in the world. On her return to the USA she buckled down to the task of forging her own career, soon catching the eye of Walter Mashburn who had no hesitation in recruiting her to his organisation.

Jane read the file with interest, it explained a lot. He could empathise all too easily with having to cope with the sudden loss of everything you held dear. Where Jane had imploded under the burden of his guilt and given in to his grief, Nita had no choice but to cope. Worse still the realisation that her husband wasn't quite the man she thought he was, must have been a devastating blow. Jane suspected her grief soon turned to anger, making her determined that she would never be dependent on anyone else again. Without the burden of guilt that held Jane back, throwing herself into work with a single-minded purpose was Nita's way of filling the emotional void. The passion that burned within her was one of ambition, as personal considerations were put to one side.

Jane ventured through to Lisbon's office and plonked himself down on her sofa, she carried on working refusing to look up from her desk. Jane smiled, ok she was going to make him work for this.

"Interesting isn't it?" Jane knew Grace had already emailed the report to Lisbon, and he was interested to see if that had altered Lisbon's perspective on Nita.

"What's interesting? The weather forecast? The news the fact that Hightower is all over me? Or the fact that someone told Bertram about your shenanigans yesterday?" There was more than a touch of self pity to her acerbic response.

"Well of course they're all interesting, especially the later. Anyhow ignoring your deliberate obfuscation, I know you've read Van Pelt's report." Jane looked expectantly at Lisbon, silently demanding a response.

"Got to hand it to Kapoor, dragging herself up from the gutter and rebuilding her life from scratch." Lisbon conceded grudgingly.

"We're all in the gutter Lisbon, but some of us are looking at the stars. Besides it's a winning combination - the tragic widow, undeniable good looks and intelligence, she was better placed than most to succeed. Take it from someone who knows." Jane commented wryly.

"Yes, but we also know that widowhood doesn't necessarily qualify you for sainthood." Lisbon added pointedly. "Anyhow it doesn't mean she's not capable of masterminding a coup."

"Oh I quite agree, she's more than capable. Why else would Walter employ her? But this still proves nothing. I'd look at her wider family to see if any of them had dealings with Mashburn, or even if there is a link between Mashburn and her husband. Find the motive, and we'll find the killer." Jane had long since overcome his attraction to tragic widows, Nita fascinated him but purely on an intellectual level.

In the mean time Rigsby had been investigating the shareholders of VA, and had discovered that after Mashburn the single largest shareholder was one Markham Shankar the software mogul. Shankar's background would make him ideally suited to challenge Mashburn, if he succeeded in galvanising the other shareholders against Walter.

Jane guessed Mashburn had chosen his investor's carefully. Someone as thorough as Mashburn wouldn't leave anything to chance, and would have enough intel on most of the smaller investors to keep them in line. Presumably he was comfortable enough with Shankar's presence, despite the fact he could be the cuckoo in the nest. Still it wouldn't do any harm to research Shankar further, Mashburn's competitive edge would no doubt make him enemies when there was a clash of egos. For all his charm, Jane knew that Mashburn was prepared to play dirty to win.

* * *

This time the interviews were being conducted in the main office block, well away from the influence of the research team. Cho would do most of the legwork with Jane and Lisbon largely observing. Lucia was first up; her disappointment was palpable when she realised Cho was fronting the interview. Lisbon had immediately noted the cloying celebrity perfume which announced her arrival, and did her best to suppress a smile at the neatly coiffed hair and faint trace of lip gloss that constituted a makeover by Lucia's standards. You didn't have to be a mentalist to work out who she was trying to impress. Feeling mildly embarrassed at being the object of her desire, Jane just gave Lucia a cursory nod of encouragement.

Cho flicked through his papers before looking up at Lucia. Jane noted that in Barker's absence Lucia was now looking to him for approval, she really had appallingly low self esteem with her constant need for approval. Cho had been well primed where to apply the pressure to follow through on Jane's theory of a cover up.

"So tell me about the different modes of operation." Cho wasted no time with small talk.

"Well there are four basic modes manual, program, test and autonomous. Manual is self explanatory, the driver has complete control of vehicle. Program mode is infinitely variable and allows remote driving of the vehicle through the user interface. In test mode the vehicle carries out predetermined sequences, allowing parametric measurements under fixed conditions, to determine the optimum settings. Accelerometers record vibration levels to determine whether the control algorithm is correctly mimicking the human driver."

Cho looked puzzled so Lucia elaborated. "A human driver will automatically take account of the passenger's comfort when cornering for example, the driver subconsciously alters their driving habits when there are passengers in the car. Algorithms have to be developed with dummy passengers in place to optimise the comfort levels in the various drive modes. Based on those, and many other algorithms the vehicle makes its own decisions in autonomous mode, it simply requires the start and end destinations to be entered and the computer works out everything in between."

"So how do you differentiate between test and program mode? " Cho wanted to make sure they understood this fully.

"In test mode the routines are predetermined, in program mode parameters can be altered." Lucia was starting to shuffle uneasily.

"So no adjustment is permissible during the test trials?" Cho's eyes bore into Lucia, his well honed interviewing skills told him Lucia was not telling them everything.

"There is a flag that write protects the vehicle in test mode preventing any further changes to the prescribed routines. The performance tests have to be approved by committee beforehand." Lucia quickly looked at Jane for reassurance, but none was forthcoming, she was on the hook and they were going to reel her in.

Gently but firmly Cho plugged away. "That must make the whole process very bureaucratic, what if you find an error in the code and need to make a change ?"

"It's supposed to go back to committee." Lucia looked down at the desk, knowing where the questioning was leading.

Jane saw it all now. "Chong overrode the safeguards didn't he? Barker didn't know – perhaps he still doesn't know?"

Lucia looked crestfallen. "Barker insisted on seeing everything, but Chong wanted to press on. I noticed the code had changed and tried to tell Barker, but he just brushed me off, didn't want to talk to me. It meant that Chong could make changes without approval."

"Who else knew about this?" Cho took over again.

"Zach was just as frustrated with Barker as Chong was, so I guess he was in on it." Lucia conceded.

"You realise the significance of this. Did anyone else know about it?" Cho searched her face, not prepared to let her go until he had extracted every last detail.

Lucia looked down nervously before glancing towards Mashburn's office.

"Mashburn knew?" Cho looked over to Jane and Lisbon. Jane didn't look particularly surprised.

Lucia shrugged noncommittally."Dr Barker does everything by the book, insists procedure is followed. Sometimes there's pressure to speed things up a bit..."

The meaning was clear to all, there was an operation within the operation. Barker's intransigence had caused people to short circuit the system, no doubt aided and abetted by Mashburn.

"So why don't they just replace Dr Barker if he's that difficult?" Cho was surprised Mashburn had let this situation fester.

"He's the best in the business at delivering a finished product, his attention to detail is second to none. Dr Barker won't sign off anything unless it's right, we have very few product recalls. Barker makes sure things are right first time. It's just if you want to try out anything new he's a stickler for protocol." What Lucia said made sense, Barker was a necessary, if irritating, counterbalance to the more creative elements.

"And no one else knows?" Cho hadn't quite finished.

Lucia glanced out at Nita and shrugged."I don't know, all I'll say is that little happens round here without Nita's say so."

Cho got Lucia to sign a statement but Jane guessed they had learned as much as they could from her.

The earnest young engineer Franklin was very much in the same mould as Barker, and did everything by the book. If there were any deviations from procedure he didn't seem to know about it.

Finally they interviewed Zach who initially tried to brazen Cho out. He shared Jane's disdain for authority figures but lacked the pizzazz to carry off the act convincingly. Cho soon cut him down to size with a few well placed questions prompted by Van Pelt's briefing beforehand.

Jane ambled over to join Cho, he had been watching Zach carefully throughout. "You're squinting a bit Zach, are you finding the lights a bit bright?"

Zach sniffed and looked suspiciously in Jane's direction.

"Of course some people claim drugs enhance their creative abilities, but I wonder what the company policy is on that?" Jane circled around Zach, intensifying the pressure.

"What the hell is he talking about?" Zach tried to ignore Jane by addressing Cho.

Cho picked up on Jane's thinking straight away. "Empty your pockets please."

Zach stood up to leave but stopped in his tracks when Jane intervened. "It's a sure sign of guilt when someone leaves the room. Chong knew all about your habit and used it to coerce you to break the rules. Not that I imagine you put up much resistance. You had every opportunity to override the programme and moreover had a motive. Chong just wouldn't let this drop."

In a moment of madness Zach tried to dash from the room only to find Lisbon barring his way. "I think you'll find things will go a whole lot easier if you tell us the truth."

The upshot was that Zach confirmed they did run parallel procedures at times to speed things along, as far as he knew everyone bar Franklin and Barker were aware what was going on.

"Well I guess that eliminates Barker and Franklin." Cho ventured.

"Not necessarily, they may have been aware of the situation and just turned a blind eye to it." Jane wasn't prepared to let Barker off the hook just yet, although the evidence appeared to exonerate him.

* * *

Lisbon set her sights on Nita next, Jane was interested to see how Lisbon approached this prickly subject. Nita signalled for them to take a seat, and offered them refreshments, which of course Lisbon declined.

"Look I know it's a busy day for you with the conference and everything, so we'll keep it brief." Lisbon fell back on professional courtesy, it wasn't that she disliked Nita personally, it was just that she found her impenetrable veneer of corporate urbanity slightly irritating. No one was that perfect, surely the woman must let rip at times? Much as Lisbon tried to imagine some hidden vice she failed, other than a predilection for designer shoes Lisbon guessed Nita was perfectly disciplined. Hell, she didn't even have a caffeine habit judging by the glass of still water on her desk, it just wasn't natural.

Jane leant back in his chair, opting to observe rather than participate at this juncture. However even he was taken aback by Nita's assured opening gambit. "Judging by the way Lucia slunk out of the office and Zach's guilty look, I would say you have uncovered our little secret already, so we may as well cut out the preliminaries."

Jane beamed in approval at Nita's chutzpah. Of course Lisbon's surprise was an added bonus, but it didn't take her long to regain her composure. "A wise decision Nita, no point wasting our time. I take it that both you and Mr Mashburn were aware of Chong's activities."

An amused look crossed her features and she dropped some of the formality. "Aware? I would imagine Mr Mashburn positively encouraged it. Of course we had to keep up a front, but Walter had known Chong from when he ran his avionics company, and Chong always had a direct line to Walter."

"How will Walter feel about you divulging this to us?" Lisbon was taken aback by her openness.

"Frankly, he would have been disappointed if you hadn't worked it out by now." Nita met Jane's eyes with a hint of mischief. Jane smirked at the indignation on Lisbon's face, he could see her mask starting to slip.

"Disappointed! We're investigating a murder without all the material facts, don't you think it would have been a good idea to tell us this beforehand." All pretence of calm was dropped, Lisbon was seething. Hightower was right, Mashburn was playing them for fools, charming them on one hand while running rings round them.

"Walter thought Mr Jane needed 'to do his thing', and it was best just to let you get on with it. We don't know who killed Chong, even if we have a good idea how it was done." Nita was completely unrepentant, she really was the perfect fit for Walter professionally.

Sensing Lisbon was about to go for the jugular, Jane hastily entered the fray. "Excuse me for being so direct, but it could easily have been you or Walter that doctored the program. You both had the opportunity and expertise to do it. Though I'm not sure what the motivation is yet, but I promise you that if you did it, we will find out."

Nita pursed her lips, showing the first sign of irritation. "If either Walter or I had wanted to take someone out, I assure you we would have found an infinitely better way of doing it than this. There would be no evidence, they would be gone in a puff of smoke."

"Umm. Isn't that what happened to your husband?" Jane knew he was hitting below the belt, but it was the only way to pierce her armour. He immediately noticed the spark of anger. Nita had fire in her belly after all, she was no ice maiden.

"I should have guessed we would have to come back to that. My husband's unfortunate demise was of absolutely no benefit to me. I'm really surprised that _you_ of all people would stoop that low Mr Jane." Nita had no doubt they had researched her past thoroughly.

"Touché, but you must admit it all looks very suspicious from the outside." Jane left Lisbon to finish off.

"Do you mind me asking how long you've known Mr Mashburn?" Lisbon contented herself with covering the basics for now.

Although Nita hated being an open book, she saw no point hiding what would come out in the wash anyhow. "Walter had dealings with a company I worked with and he headhunted me. I've been working for him for three years now."

Jane guessed she was deceiving by omission, rather than telling blatant untruths. There was some past history between her and Mashburn that Nita was attempting to conceal. It wasn't anything as obvious as an affair, there was absolutely no sexual chemistry between them. Jane wondered if Walter was even aware of the connection. Jane sensed that Nita's husband may be the key to that particular mystery. Far from clarifying matters the labyrinthine twists were throwing up as many questions as answers.


	5. Chapter 5 : Blinking Red Light

**Chapter 5 -Blinking Red Light**

 _There's no excuse for this chapter just a bit of fun._

* * *

Jane's eyes narrowed as he spotted Bertram on the opposite side of the auditorium, wondering what had brought him so far off his patch. Of course Bertram would never miss the opportunity to rub shoulders with the movers and shakers, and like Jane he was always willing to scarf some food at someone else's expense. Still there must be something going on behind the scenes for Bertram to get involved to this degree, Jane made a mental note of the people Bertram was talking to, determined to investigate further when the opportunity arose.

The consultant looked over to where Hightower and Lisbon were conferring, their shared indignation at Mashburn's orchestration of events uniting them for once. Personally Jane couldn't see what all the fuss was about; Walter was a bad boy keeping just about the right side of the law. It wouldn't do for everyone be the same. Take that edge away from Mashburn, and you would be left with a pale imitation of the character that could pull off the most audacious deals, and had a real vision for the future.

Jane tipped his glass at Walter; the hospitality of the event was exemplary. He swilled the Fumé Blanc around his appreciative palate, with Lisbon driving Jane saw no reason to deny himself the finer things of life. Mashburn gently disengaged himself from the actress well known for jumping on the latest fashionable cause, calling Nita over to take her details as he made a strategic retreat. Walter approached Jane, rolling his eyes despairingly. "I wouldn't mind Patrick, but one minute they're all serious trying to save the world, and the next they're revving up your engine with designs on being the next Mrs Mashburn."

"It must be a hard life Walter." As the recipient of more than his fair share of unwanted attention Jane wasn't being entirely facetious; it could feel quite oppressive at times. Jane could understand why beautiful women like Nita chose to play down their looks, Jane was fairly sure those glasses she sported were just a shield to hide behind, and were of no prescriptive value.

"You know Patrick, it would be nice just to find someone interested in you for yourself, and not just for what you stand for." Walter's eyes automatically drifted towards a certain pert agent, who was deep in conversation with her senior agent. "I guess Teresa didn't take Nita's disclosures well, the temperature was decidedly chilly when I tried to talk to her."

"She'll come round Walter. Let's face it, if she can work with me, she's not going to let something like this worry her, unless of course you are the guilty party." Jane examined Mashburn's face carefully.

"Well Patrick, do you think I'm guilty?" Part of Mashburn quite enjoyed being the suspect.

"Undoubtedly, but not of this. You're hiding something, but you had nothing to do with Chong's death. I should warn you though, if Teresa finds out you're covering for someone else, she will come after you Walter, no matter how much she likes you." Jane added seriously.

"Uumm, so she likes me does she?" Mashburn flashed a smile in Lisbon's direction to no avail, with Hightower at her side she was maintaining a strictly professional veneer.

* * *

Slick and professional Mashburn commanded the stage; he strode round like the king of the pride confident in all he surveyed, only occasionally returning to his lectern to refresh his memory on some of the detail.

"We are on the cusp of change; the balance is finally tipping in favour of renewable energies and away from fossil fuels. For too long now the carbon lobby have talked down renewable energy, but the planet is now reaching a critical point. It's a fact that nine out of the ten warmest years since records began have occurred since the year 2000. The polar regions are losing mass at an alarming rate; Antarctica is losing 134 gigatonnes of ice every year, with the Greenland ice sheet losing a further 287 gigatonnes per year. The sea level has risen 81mm since 1990, at an alarming rate of 3.4mm per year. Whole islands and low lying countries are threatened, and yet we continue to spew out more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year."

Mashburn paused to let the facts sink in, as a short video played illustrating the effects of global warming.

"For a long time the cost of renewables was prohibitive, but with government initiatives such as feed in tariffs the solar energy costs have dropped dramatically. Photovoltaic prices fall 20% for every doubling of industry capacity, and their carbon footprint is negligible, they will recoup the energy to manufacture them in just 18 months. As the production costs reduce we are closer to reaching grid parity, without the harmful side effects of fossil fuels."

Ever the consummate performer, Mashburn surveyed the audience as if addressing everyone personally. "I hear you ask, but where do VA come into this story? Admittedly we don't make photovoltaics, but we do make batteries and the age of the battery is upon us. Not only in electric vehicles, but also in large scale facilities that make it viable to store solar energy, and release it back into the grid allowing renewables to maintain the balance between supply and demand."

A heckler's voice rang out from the back of the auditorium. "So the other industries subsidise the solar industry, and you get rich off the back of it? Anyhow isn't it a fact that batteries aren't as environmentally friendly as you make out? It takes vast amounts of water to extract lithium resulting in water depletion and also leaves the contaminated water to deal with."

Walter was primed for the questions. "Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address that. There is no magic wand solution to any problem, but VA is instigating the largest recycling facility of lithium ion batteries to make it more viable to recover the lithium. We also have active programmes developing alternative battery technologies. As for subsidies, the cost benefit of getting the unit price of solar power down will benefit generations to come, if we can halt the inexorable trend for global warming. The next generation will wonder why it took us so long to do this."

Another sceptical voice rose from the audience "Isn't it true that these photovoltaics need to be cooled in some locations as their efficiency drops off with temperature, diverting valuable water resources away from the local community?"

"Solutions can be engineered, the new generation of photovoltaics incorporate self cooling obviating the need for water cooling." Give Mashburn his due, he knew his subject inside out.

A bellicose critic stood up at the back of the hall. "It's all hooey, we all know NASA has been rigging the data for years. You're nothing but a fraud Mashburn, taking the taxpayer's money for your own benefit, and putting good men out of work. Mark my words someone will do something about this. You'll be stopped by whatever means necessary." The threats directed at Mashburn took on a more sinister turn, as the security guards firmly led the man out of the auditorium.

* * *

Jane was watching Mashburn closely, he really was enjoying this. The challenge of taking on the establishment, while forwarding his business interests at the same time, was an irresistible combination for Mashburn. Jane was finally starting to understand what made Walter tick.

Getting bored with the repetitive nature of the questions, Jane looked round to see where Nita was. He'd seen her slip out of the small exit at the back of the hall at start of the presentation, and Jane's curiosity got the better of him. Mashburn was still in full flow, all eyes were on his graphics, so Jane assumed no-one would miss him if he had a mooch around.

Jane was soon rewarded by the sight of Nita emerging from a stairwell at the back of the hall, before disappearing into the foyer to confer with one of the security team. Jane looked at the stairwell wondering what Nita had been doing up there, unable to resist the siren call of the stairway Jane had a furtive look round to make sure no one was watching him, before indulging his curiosity.

The door opened to a media centre with a small window overlooking the stage, where Jane could see Walter still holding court. The sound was piped into the media centre, so if questioned Jane could keep track of what was being said.

Still curious about Nita's activities, he approached the desk facing the window and started to idly look round, shuffling some of the papers and idly picking up the laser pointer. Indulging his playful side Jane started pointing the red laser around the room making patterns on the walls. He was disturbed from his reverie by Nita's unheralded return, Jane had been so wrapped up in his own games that he never heard her come in.

"So did you find what you wanted Mr Jane?" Nita looked mildly amused at the sight of the consultant playing with his magic wand.

Jane swung round a smile on his face. "Best view in the place by the looks of it, I wondered where you had disappeared to."

He was confused by the sudden change of expression on Nita's face... Jane turned to face the window and his mouth formed into a silent O...

* * *

After the interloper had been ejected, Hightower and Lisbon had made their way to the front of the hall as a precautionary measure, and now stood guard by the stage with a good view of everything in the event of further trouble. Mashburn was upsetting some powerful people, and this was an ideal opportunity for someone to make a very powerful statement. Lisbon double checked on Cho's position before looking over to Mashburn on the stage. A red light appeared on Mashburn's forehead; without a moment's hesitation Lisbon leapt onto the stage and tackled Mashburn down _._ Hightower looked for the source of the beam and quickly ordered Cho to investigate. Assuming the attack had been aborted because of Lisbon's pre-emptive strike, and that the would be assailant had taken flight, Hightower ordered everyone to stay put until the all clear was given.

Cho dashed upstairs, and kicked the door open without warning, adopting the classic Weaver stance with his head held level with his firing arm. "Put your hands in the air and turn around."

Jane and Nita were still unaware that they had been the cause of the kerfuffle in the main auditorium, but obeyed without hesitation slowly turning round to face Cho, the pointer still in Jane's hand prescribed a perfect arc on the ceiling.

The look of disgust on Cho's face immediately alerted Jane he was in trouble again. Although the gun was lowered, the look on Cho's face indicated shooting was too good for Jane. As soon as Cho saw the pointer in Jane's hand, he'd worked out the chain of events. Dismissing the possibility of the cock up theory, Cho glared accusingly at Jane. "What the hell d'ya do that for?"

Jane looked blankly until Cho jerked his head up at the red light and the penny finally dropped. Jane took another look at Lisbon's compromising situation astride Mashburn, before starting to shake with irrepressible mirth. "Lisbon...she thought...and she...Mashburn...This is priceless."

Lisbon had ended up on top of a startled Mashburn, who was pinned down on his back by Lisbon. Assuming the threat had passed, she pulled herself upright still straddling him. Forgetting his microphone was still on, and trying to make light of the situation, Mashburn looked up at her quizzically. "If I'd known you were that desperate Teresa I'd have gotten a room." There was a ripple of nervous laughter around the room, that helped relieve the general tension if not Lisbon's.

Cho's face screwed up in anger, Jane had made fools of them all yet again. Before matters got any worse Cho quickly called Lisbon to explain the situation. Nita finally understood what had happened, and her eyes crinkled with amusement allowing a muttered "Oh-mi-god" to escape, before her shoulders started to shake with mirth. The situation wasn't helped by the murderous look Lisbon cast in their direction.

When Lisbon's phone went off she just listened in stunned silence, and lifted her head slowly in the direction of the media centre where Jane, Nita and Cho were looking down on them. Transfixed by the sight of Jane flashing her with the pointer, she distractedly muttered "I've got to go, something's come up."

"I can't help it if you're irresistible" Walter glanced down south meaningfully. Belatedly realising Mashburn's predicament and her compromising position, Lisbon screwed her face up in disgust and leapt up none too gently, causing Mashburn's eyes to water in the process.

Realising he needed to take back control of the situation, Mashburn rolled over to the side and stiffly made his way over to the lectern. "No need to panic folks, the CBI are in control of the situation. As soon as we get the all clear we'll make our way to the reception room, where I'm happy to take any further questions." Pulling the microphone off, he headed back to Hightower and Lisbon.

* * *

Barely able to keep a straight face, Jane made his way down to face the music, Nita quickly apprised Walter of the situation, he just shook his head in amazement when he realised exactly what had happened. Mashburn's pupils dilated as he looked admiringly in Lisbon's direction, without a thought for own safety she had placed herself between him and a bullet. He couldn't help suppress a smile as he watched the plucky heroine tearing a strip off her consultant.

"Lisbon how can it be my fault? I didn't know you were going to jump Walter." Jane's lips twitched as he saw Lisbon's indignation.

"I did not jump Walter." She shouted, causing heads to turn.

"Did too." Jane countered, his eyes twinkling.

Lisbon silently mouthed some obscenities in Jane's direction.

"No need to be like that Lisbon. I'm sure Walter found the experience quite exhilarating. After all it's not every day you're bowled over by a red blooded woman in front of a room full of people." Jane looked over to Mashburn, confident that Mashburn would play along.

"Teresa you tried to save me, no need to be embarrassed about that. Besides there's no such thing as bad publicity, an attempt on my life will give us no end of free publicity." Mashburn was already computing the upside of events.

Hightower coughed. "Actually Mr Mashburn there was no attempt on your life, I'm afraid..."

Mashburn held up his hand to still her "Well you may want to reconsider that stance, I do believe your Boss is currently holding court with the media extolling the CBI's virtues. I hardly think he is going to welcome news to the contrary, besides I won't tell if you don't." He winked conspiratorially at Hightower, knowing she was trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Hightower winced when she saw Bertram milking the situation for all it was worth, before fixing Jane with a gimlet eye. _Crap, crap, crap! That damned consultant was going to pay for this, she'd whip his ass into shape one way or another._

Leaning forward to place a kiss on Lisbon and Hightower's cheeks Walter laughed."Farewell my brave protectresses, I'm afraid I have to mingle. Do join us, I'm sure everyone will want to meet the heroine of the hour."

Hightower and Lisbon looked at each other helplessly, knowing they were ensnared by the web of deceit of Jane's making. Shuffling uncomfortably under the weight of the opprobrium of his colleagues, Jane dusted off his tried and trusted charm offensive to get himself out of trouble, with a flourish he announced. "Ladies the feast awaits."

Ok no dice on that score. In response to the deafening silence Jane just shrugged, and made his way in the direction of the oyster bar, no point wasting good food after all.


	6. Chapter 6 : Car 54 Where are you?

**Chapter 6: Car 54 Where are you?**

Without straying too far from the vicinity of the oyster bar, Jane kept a watchful eye on proceedings, looking out for potential suspects. Of course Jane knew that the most dangerous people were those less obvious in their antagonism, the wolves in sheep's clothing. It had to be said that Mashburn was a formidable operator, even Jane acknowledged their similarities. Both could simultaneously engage with people, while planning their next move ahead. Those basking in the glow of the charm offensive rarely realised that their genial host was eyeing up their next opportunity.

A quick glance in Lisbon's direction confirmed there was no thawing on that front, still nothing ventured nothing gained, Jane tipped his glass in their direction.

"I'll kill him" Lisbon muttered, in response to Jane cheerily toasting them from the opposite side of the room.

"Not if I get to him first." Hightower was deadly serious, being fully cognisant of the ramifications of this fiasco. The sight of Jane propping up the oyster bar did nothing to appease Hightower's anger, and worse still Mashburn now had a hold over them.

In the mean time Mashburn had been cornered by a more sceptical bunch of journalists, whose readership would be directly impacted by any down turn in the traditional carbon based industries. The opposition was further bolstered by some hardened New York hacks; the proprietor of their journal was an established sceptic of global warming.

The questions were infinitely more searching and with a harder edge, challenging some of the more extravagant claims of VA. They made some valid points; ever the showman Mashburn wasn't above hyperbole when it suited his cause. However he robustly rebutted the arguments, arguing that solutions would be engineered to overcome any difficulties, and that even in the short term there was the potential for a significant reduction in the level of CO2 emissions.

The argument was clearly cutting no ice with the hardened hacks, so Mashburn tried to bring the arguments closer to home. "At this very moment a crack is propagating across the Larcen C ice field in Antarctica, the iceberg about to be calved would be the size of Delaware. Admittedly it would only cause a minimal rise in sea levels if it broke free and drifted to temperate waters, but more worryingly it exposes new parts of the ice field to the ravages of the seas."

"Hooey it's just conjecture. It will never happen." The sceptic would never be convinced.

"Perhaps, but in the worst case scenario if the ice fields were to destabilise, precipitating further glacial slip, sea levels could rise by as much as 10-13 feet over time. Maybe people will finally start believing when parts of Staten Island and Long Island are under water." Mashburn knew he would never convert everyone, but if just a few journals picked up on the narrative it might help swing the pendulum of public opinion in his direction. Privately Mashburn conceded that the track record of scientists predicting global warming was on a par with economist's forecasts of growth, though both could explain in great detail what was wrong with the model after the event.

* * *

Jane had been following the discussion with interest, although he doubted he would be around to see the worst of the effects. For obvious reasons long term planning was not something he indulged in, preferring to just live for the moment, taking small pleasures where he could, and he had to admit the spread Walter had laid on was pretty sumptuous.

Casting his eye further afield, Jane picked up on the man he now knew to be Markham Shankar, an interesting character, less obviously charismatic than Mashburn, but an alpha male nevertheless. Shankar's phlegmatic demeanour gave little away while he was watching Mashburn, however periodically his eyes drifted over to where Nita was entertaining a group of prospective clients. At that point his expression changed, showing an altogether more unpleasant side to his character that troubled Jane. He wasn't sure what warranted that degree of animosity, presumably he had either been thwarted romantically or in business, whichever Jane would make it his business to find out.

Lisbon and Hightower's concerns were less esoteric, how the hell were they going to stop Bertram milking the alleged attack for all it was worth? Hightower considered coming clean with Bertram so they could have a managed retreat, perhaps they could say a malfunction in the projection system caused the red light to fall on Mashburn. At worst it would entail a modicum of ridicule, but Lisbon would still emerge the hero of the day, surely that was a plus? Hightower was sure she could bring Mashburn in line, but her heart sank when she saw Bertram being interviewed for the early evening news. To try and back track now would be career defining, if not limiting, for both Lisbon and Hightower.

Mashburn finally extricated himself from his interlocutors and made his way toward Jane, with a self congratulatory smile on his face. All things considered that had gone better than expected.

"Look at them they're like peas in a pod." Lisbon exclaimed, furious that they were seemingly unaffected by events.

Hightower slowly blinked her heavy eyelids like a feline predator taking in her quarry, if needs be she knew exactly how to have both men at her mercy. A side glance at Lisbon, then back to the men in question confirmed her thoughts, she knew how to hit them where it hurt. It was a shame for Lisbon, but Hightower would follow the words of Sun Tzu.

' _Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.'_

With more hope than optimism, Hightower decided to have one last go at prising Bertram away from the cameras, and left Lisbon to her own devices. Seeing her deserted, Mashburn and Jane took the opportunity to make their way over to her.

"So here she is the heroine of the hour." Walter motioned for the waiters, who were seamlessly weaving between the guests, to replenish their glasses. "Oh come on Teresa, we have California's finest wines at your disposal and you're drinking water. Where's your spirit of adventure?"

"My spirit of adventure has already had one outing today, besides one of us has to stay sober." A quick glare at Jane was lost on him, as he savoured the subtle undertones of the Fumé Blanc. There was no way he was driving anywhere for a few hours.

"Well you could always stay?" Mashburn quirked an eyebrow suggestively.

"Someone's got to get Cinderella home before midnight." Lisbon deftly side stepped Mashburn's comments. "After this afternoon's debacle, I hardly think my boss is going to sanction overnight accommodation."

"That wasn't what I meant Teresa." Mashburn said softly, forgetting for a moment there was a third wheel in the conversation.

"Oh don't mind me." Jane's eyes flitted from one to the other before concluding that Walter was flogging a dead horse on that front tonight.

Sensing the conversation was heading for dangerous waters, Lisbon put down her glass. "Do I have to remind you that we are supposed to be working here? Jane I'll catch up with you later. Try not to cause any more trouble."

* * *

Torn about what to do next, she looked over in Dr Barker's direction, where he was deep in conversation with experts from some of the scientific periodicals. He certainly wouldn't welcome an interruption, so Lisbon glanced over to the buffet where Nita was standing with Markham Shankar. Nita's body language was distinctly defensive, with her arms crossed in front of her. When Shankar tried to get hold of her arm, Nita angrily brushed his hand off. Torn between the desire to see what would play out and her inclination to protect, the better part of Lisbon decided a strategic intervention was in order.

Clearly some angry words had been exchanged and Nita turned away angrily. With a look of frustration, Shankar stalked away and rudely brushed past Lisbon in the process. Thinking that she was alone, Nita let an expletive slip, only to be surprised to find Lisbon facing her when she turned round. Nita pursed her lips in embarrassment before recovering her composure.

Lisbon smiled sympathetically, guessing she had been the recipient of unwanted attention. "It's kind of comforting to know you're not perfect after all."

After a momentary pause Nita broke out into a smile. "We all have our weaknesses Agent Lisbon."

"We certainly do." Lisbon cast her eyes in the direction of the dynamic duo, who were still chewing the fat. "Do you want to talk about that?"

"Shankar's one of our biggest shareholders, sometimes he thinks he owns the staff as well as the shares. It goes with the territory, I can handle it." Nita backtracked as soon as she said it, instantly regretting her lapse of discretion.

Lisbon frowned; she hated people with privilege thinking they could get away with anything they wanted. "It doesn't make it right though."

A lot of the tension between them dissipated, neither woman wanted to be thought of as a victim. They had made their choices and would live with the consequences, but it gave them a sense of kinship, not that either of them would ever admit to it.

Now that the guests were rapidly starting to disperse, Lisbon saw an opportunity to learn more about Nita. "Must have been difficult for you after your husband died."

Nita looked at her incredulously, difficult was an understatement. "Ah, should have known there was an ulterior motive for this."

Lisbon had the good grace to look embarrassed. "That wasn't my intention when I came over, but we are going to have this conversation sometime. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't. I take my career every bit as seriously as you take yours. I just thought if we got it out of the way, it might clear the air."

Respecting Lisbon's candour, Nita considered it for a few moments before giving a brief nod. "Walter says you're OK, and he's normally a good judge of character, although he does have dreadful taste in women."

"I'm so glad Walter approves!" Lisbon said laconically - the two women looked at each other and started laughing.

Nita led Lisbon over to a corner table, from where she could still keep an eye on proceedings. "There's a quiet spot here, so what exactly do you want to know?"

"Look, it's laborious building up the full picture around a case, sometimes the most innocuous information can provide a hidden key. When we're looking for a motive we have to cast a wide net, so I have to ask if there's anything in your past that may be relevant to what is going on at VA at the moment?" Lisbon played her opening gambit.

"Sorry Agent Lisbon, you'll have to be more specific than that." Nita countered.

"Alright, why don't you start by telling me what happened to your husband?" Lisbon suggested.

"You mean over and above what's already in your file?" Came the arch reply.

Lisbon smiled. "Touché, yes that's exactly what I mean."

"I know everyone assumed Vijay had gotten out of his depth, but there was more to it than that. The authorities wouldn't listen it was bad publicity; far better to label him as some hustler, rather than to look into why some as shrewd as Vijay was involved with people like that." There was more than a touch of bitterness to Nita's voice.

"I'm sorry to say it, but on the face of the evidence, there were some dubious connections." However awkward it was, Lisbon couldn't gloss over the truth.

"Vijay was one of the brightest men you could wish to meet; he had no need to resort to criminal activities to get rich. He would have succeeded in whatever he set his mind to." Nita looked Lisbon straight in the eye.

Lisbon didn't doubt the veracity of her statement, but that still didn't explain what Vijay had been doing. Sensing Nita knew more than she was letting on, well that was hardly news, Lisbon opted for the direct approach. "You were living a life of luxury in Dubai; the offshore company Vijay was trading under didn't actually seem to do anything. Dubai is very protective of its status as a tax haven, so the authorities won't tell us much, but periodic transfers into your US bank accounts from a fund in the Cayman Islands could be construed as payment for services rendered. So what exactly was Vijay doing Nita?"

Nita was taken aback that Lisbon was so well versed in the workings of tax havens. "You're the detective, you tell me."

"She can't tell you Lisbon, because she doesn't know exactly." Jane had materialised from nowhere, he'd only caught the tail end of the conversation, but instantly knew that Lisbon was onto something. Ignoring the look of irritation on Lisbon's face at his intervention, Jane decided to throw in a curve ball anyway. "Of course she does know more than she's letting on, but she doesn't know the whole story. Why for example would a highly intelligent woman just put her career on hold for a year? There would have to be a pretty good reason for that, and Nita doesn't strike me as the sort of woman who would just blindly follow her husband. So there must have been something in it for both of them – a promise of future employment perhaps?"

Judging by the infinitesimal tightening of the muscles around Nita's eyes Jane had scored a hit, though she refused to rise to the bait. Which of course just made Jane try harder to unravel the puzzle, he mentally tossed some of the more implausible theories into the rough, until he finally came up with one that fitted the bill. Turning to Lisbon, sporting that smug smile guaranteed to annoy, Jane delivered his verdict. "Of course it's obvious when you think about it, the golden couple well versed in the inside knowledge of corporate dealings, who better to work undercover? No one would suspect a thing, they would slot in seamlessly. Of course the sixty four thousand dollar question is, who were they working for and why?"

Lisbon caught on to Jane's thought process straight away. Of course that explained Nita's vehement defence of Vijay; something had gone wrong, and it had all unravelled with disastrous results. What remained to be proven was whether this was relevant to the case in hand. Part of Lisbon wanted to see this through, even if they had to do some work off book. Nita was a prickly customer, but she deserved some closure.

Before they had the opportunity to pursue the matter further Nita's phone beeped, and the look on her face immediately told them it was something serious. "One of the cars has gone rogue and is heading off the complex." Nita turned to Jane."Can you get Walter, he needs to meet me in the foyer straight away."

Lisbon was already leading the way to the foyer, as she informed Cho and Hightower of the latest developments by phone. Fortunately Bertram had already left, and the last few hangers on had just been scavenging the free buffet. Lisbon noted the hospitality staff carefully ushering the remaining people away through a side exit, so that they that didn't have a ringside view of events.

Barker and Mashburn were consulting worriedly. "What do you mean you can't communicate with it?" Mashburn snapped.

Barker bridled under the criticism. "It looks like someone has tapped into the protocols, and made some unauthorised changes. We can't even remotely de-activate the vehicle, it's gone completely rogue."

"Check the programme, there must be something we can do." Mashburn's eyes followed the receding vehicle.

"All we can do is follow it for now, and see what it does." Barker replied with some irritation.

Without further ado they leapt into their vehicles in pursuit of the rogue bubble car that wended its way toward the Redwood Highway, heading off in the direction of the Golden Gate Bridge. Police outriders ran alongside the vehicle, ready to burst into action at the first sign of trouble.

Without knowing what the purpose of the stunt was, they knew they had to stop the vehicle before it reached the Golden Gate Bridge and it was decided to deploy a stinger spike system to stop the vehicle. When it was finally disabled Lisbon, Jane and Mashburn cautiously approached the vehicle, stopping dead in their tracks when it suddenly emitted a plume of smoke. After a short delay they decided it was safe to proceed, and peered through the front window, where they saw a timer device attached to a fake bomb with a flag saying 'Boom' sticking out of it.

Mashburn looked uncharacteristically rattled. Although this was a blatant attempt to derail VA the press would have a field day with the implications of this. He could just imagine the tabloid headlines about Frankenstein cars, it would be a PR disaster. It didn't matter that someone had hacked into their systems, either internally or externally, the fact that this could happen at all would be manna for those waiting for Mashburn to take a fall.

Lisbon realised the implications of all this, but was determined to capitalise on the situation. She was sick and tired of playing cat and mouse; now was the time for straight talking. "So Walter, are you finally prepared to tell us what is going on?"


	7. Chapter 7 : Straight Talking

**Chapter 7 : Straight Talking**

Hightower walked up alongside Lisbon "Indeed Mr Mashburn enough playing games with everyone, it's time for some straight talking, but first we need to sort out this incident. However I expect you and Ms Kapoor at the CBI tomorrow afternoon. It's up to you whether you bring an attorney."

"Why would I need an attorney?" Mashburn looked from Hightower to Lisbon.

"Any number of things I would imagine, no doubt you sail close to the wind most of the time." Hightower fleetingly glanced at Lisbon before weighing up whether this was the right time to strike. "You assume you can manipulate everyone, even to the point of calling in the CBI and specifically requesting 'friendly' investigators. At this moment I'm seriously considering re-assigning the case, if I see any sign whatsoever of preferential treatment this case will be handed over to another unit, which would not reflect well on Agent Lisbon."

Lisbon stared fixedly at the ground, accepting the truth of Hightower's statement. Unabashed Mashburn looked to Jane, who just shrugged his shoulders, there was nothing he could do.

"There's no point looking to Jane for help, he's by no means out of the woods himself." Hightower folded her arms, viewing the two men critically with her unblinking stare.

One of the things that Jane had always admired about Madeline was her ability to take difficult decisions when required, playing the long game, even though it may seem unfair in the short term. It was a new experience to Mashburn coming up against a real ball-breaker, who didn't resort to feminine wiles. An amused smile passed his lips as he turned to Jane. "Is she always like this?" Jane nodded slowly, wary of incurring Hightower's wrath further on Lisbon's behalf.

"Nothing like a woman on top." Mashburn quipped appreciatively, oblivious to the grimace on Jane's face.

Lisbon averted her eyes, aware of the seriousness of the situation, yet unaccountably feeling an urge to start laughing at the sight of Jane and Mashburn being lectured like recalcitrant schoolboys. She caught Hightower's sideward glare and quickly got control of herself, after all it was Lisbon in the firing line once again.

Coolly Hightower walked away; she didn't give them an inch, they had to believe that she was prepared to carry through on her threat. Nevertheless an amused smile played on her lips, once she was out of sight.

Needless to say Jane took the brunt of Lisbon's sense of grievance on the drive back. "Honestly Lisbon, you know Hightower is just making ideal threats. Besides you could always work the case even if you were suspended."

"Yes and look where we ended up last time, being rescued from a container by a goat herd." She snapped irritably.

"But wasn't it worth it when we caught the bad guys? Anyhow Walter won't risk you getting into trouble, surely you know that by now?" Jane didn't want to say too much at this stage, but he had an inkling that this affair was further reaching than it first appeared. He just needed Van Pelt to test his theories, and then they would be able to call Walter's bluff.

* * *

Hightower had all but taken command of the case, and Lisbon had been charged with the responsibility of interviewing Mashburn. It was imperative to know that Lisbon could deal objectively with Mashburn, before Hightower took any decisions on the case. Jane had primed Lisbon with the fruits of his and Van Pelt's labours, so she was as well prepared as she could be.

Nita and Mashburn occupied interview rooms either side of the observation suite. As usual Nita was looking prim and composed, but there was something about her that brought out the protective side of men. She certainly didn't encourage it, but before long Rigsby and Cho were clucking round her like mother hens ensuring she had everything she needed. A slight smile passed her lips as she politely declined; she knew their intentions were genuine and found them rather sweet. Grace just raised a supercilious eyebrow as the boys vied for Nita's attention, recognising the steel behind Nita's mask.

Both Mashburn and Nita had waived the right to an attorney, and Mashburn stood up to greet Lisbon like an old friend as she entered the room. Well aware that she was under the eagle eyed scrutiny of Hightower in the observation room, Lisbon tried to put the interview on a more formal footing.

"Mr Mashburn..."

"Teresa, Walter please.."

" _ **Mr**_ Mashburn a murder had been committed, and you have not been eliminated as a potential suspect, so it's in your best interests to start taking this seriously. We are not your private investigators to bend to your will." Lisbon avoided eye contact as she sorted her papers, wary of being subjected to a charm offensive.

"I assure you Teresa I take this very seriously, Chong was one of my oldest collaborators. Besides you're mistaken about my motives for requesting you and Patrick, I asked for you because I knew if anyone could solve this you would." Mashburn adroitly addressed her concerns.

Lisbon shuffled uncomfortably in her chair. "Very well, it's time we established a few facts. We understand you have an apartment in Dubai."

Mashburn hesitated slightly, guessing where this line of questioning may take them. "Yes, I have a penthouse suite overlooking the Palm Jumeirah. It's not unusual, many businesses have a presence out there." He leaned forward "It's really rather nice there Teresa, perhaps you'd let me take you there some time."

Lisbon glanced nervously towards the observation pane. " _ **Mr**_ Mashburn, were you in Dubai at the time Vijay Kapoor was killed?"

Mashburn leaned back heavily in his chair. "No I was not." The answer was short but guarded, his failure to add to the statement spoke volumes, the natural response would have been to offer some opinion on the tragedy.

His reaction didn't go unnoticed by Lisbon. "But you knew Kapoor?"

"Why are you asking me questions you already know the answer to?" Mashburn countered with an air of nonchalance, in the hope of drawing out exactly how much the CBI knew without volunteering too much information himself.

"It's customary for the interviewer to ask the questions. Let me rephrase that, when did you first meet the Kapoors?" Lisbon knew the answer, but it was important that they brought the truth out once and for all.

"Vijay worked for me briefly as an intern, he had one of the sharpest minds I've ever come across." Once again Mashburn chose not to elaborate.

With a cursory glance at her notes to check her facts Lisbon proceeded. "Well on paper that's true, but you're choosing to gloss over the fact that the Kapoors were working on an assignment for you in Dubai when Vijay was killed. The income the Kapoors were receiving from the Cayman Islands has been traced back to a shell company set up by one of your subsidiaries, in short the Kapoors were employed by you."

A smirk passed over Mashburn's lips, he was impressed by this new harder hitting Lisbon. "I don't suppose there's any point denying it, but there was nothing illegal about it. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, and I was just protecting my business interests."

Unwilling to let Mashburn off the hook, Lisbon pressed the point home. "That's for us to judge, but why don't you just save us all time and tell us the whole story."

"Very well, but I don't see what this has got to do with the situation in hand." Mashburn shrugged in resignation.

"It may be nothing or everything to do with this case, but until you come clean with us we will never know." Lisbon was determined to get to the truth of the matter.

Mashburn slowly crossed his long legs while he considered his story. "We were about to launch our bid to take over VA, but we were aware that the business could be affected by political decisions. Although both the Governor and California Energy Commission recognised the advantages of Zero Emissions Vehicles (ZEVs] and advocated incentives to encourage the development and availability of ZEVs, there was one particular Senator who opposed every new initiative. With the outgoing Governor unable to stand for re-election, Senator Burke was strategically positioning himself for the next election.

"Vijay had picked up on Senator Burke's frequent visits to Dubai, and had discovered that Burke had close links to the oil industry. He suggested we could try and set up a sting to discredit Burke, nothing illegal Teresa, just a honey trap to catch him with his fingers in the till." Mashburn added for good measure. "We'd tried everything else at that stage, but had made no headway with him."

"So basically you were annoyed he took someone else's money not yours?" Hightower nodded approvingly at Lisbon's stinging attack.

"That's a bit harsh Teresa, money was never offered." Mashburn affected an offended look.

"Perhaps not, but I'm sure there are other inducements, more subtle ones that couldn't be directly traced back to you. But someone outbid you, the question is who?" Lisbon continued to press on.

"I know, the bastards! I wish I knew the answer Teresa. This whole business could have been avoided, if I'd known who."

Lisbon let that go for now. "So what exactly happened to Vijay?"

"He messaged to say he'd gotten a lead, and was meeting someone at the marina. I don't know any more than that. Their apartment was ransacked and his computer was stolen, Vijay was a real wizard with computers, he could hack into anything." Mashburn looked warily at Lisbon at that point, guessing that last sentence would have been better left unsaid.

"You really have no idea who wanted to kill Vijay?" Lisbon raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"Well Burke took fright and fled back home, so it's fair to say he wasn't unaware of events. There's never been anything to tie him in with the explosion, and believe me I left no stone unturned. My hands aren't exactly tied by protocol." Mashburn flashed a quick look at the observation pane. "I used every means at my disposal, _every_ means Teresa. I was determined to find Vijay's killer and clear his name for Nita."

"So why didn't you clear his name?" Lisbon didn't doubt his sincerity for once.

"Nita would have nothing to do with me for a couple of years. I never stopped investigating but without knowing exactly what led up to events, I was hamstrung. Sadly the trail had gone dead by time Nita was ready to start talking to me again." Mashburn ruefully replied.

"But that didn't stop you going ahead with the takeover of VA?" There was hint of disapproval in Lisbon's tone.

Mashburn spread his hands out apologetically. "It was a good deal. However much I wanted to, I couldn't turn back the clock. If I'd walked away it would have meant it was all for nothing."

"So what happened to Senator Burke?" It occurred to Lisbon that she hadn't heard of him for a while.

Mashburn didn't even bother hiding a satisfied smile. "Apparently he got implicated in some scandal and quietly withdrew from public life."

It was obvious who'd engineered that situation, but Lisbon had no interest in following that up. As far as Lisbon was concerned if the Senator had allowed himself to be caught in a compromising situation, that was his fault.

A tap on the window alerted Lisbon that Hightower wanted to talk to her, "I'll arrange for some coffee, just wait here for a while."

Mashburn shrugged and pulled out his phone and started checking his email, he could pretty much work from anywhere.

Lisbon met Hightower and Jane in the observation room a curt nod from Hightower indicated her approval. "Time to swap things round now, let's see what Jane and Cho can get out of Ms Kapoor."

* * *

Apart from some darkness under the eyes, Nita looked as composed as ever, with her petite frame there was a birdlike quality that made her look fragile, but Jane wasn't fooled for a minute, there was an inner steel. Inured to the travails of her life, she had channelled her energies into something positive, without completely letting go of the past.

Cho took up the questioning, very gently probing into Nita's life in Dubai and establishing any contacts Vijay had made. Jane listened as Nita adeptly handled Cho's line of questioning, letting it go on for a while before Jane decided to up the ante.

"You don't strike me as someone who would passively sit in the background just waiting. You must have had some idea who Vijay was tracking? Even if his computer was stolen, I'm sure you'd have taken precautions to back everything up and would have checked his emails. So what aren't you telling us Nita?" Jane had a shrewd idea that she knew more, even if she couldn't piece the facts together.

"Do you honestly think if I knew something, I wouldn't have done something about it?" The fire in Nita ignited.

Jane nodded, empathising with her more than she knew. Although the accounts had long been taken down Van Pelt had shown him evidence of the Kapoors on social media, it was a carefully constructed front, but the photographs spoke of two people enjoying the time of their life. Jane had no doubt that Nita was working hand and hand with Vijay.

"There was nothing in the emails, otherwise you would have done something about them. So why was the computer taken, who had you been investigating?"

"Vijay had spotted Senator Burke on board the yacht of a Russian Oligarch Anatoly Dyukov, who had extensive oil and gas interests. It may just have been a social acquaintance, but we never got to find out. Vijay had left me a message that he was going to the marina to investigate a lead, and asked me to meet him there, but it was too late by time I got there." Nita saw no point in trying to hide anything at this point.

"Walter said Vijay had the ability to hack accounts, is there any chance he could have stumbled on to something he shouldn't have and it was traced back to you?" Jane suspected Vijay had ventured into perilous territory, especially if the Russian mafia were involved.

"If the network had a honey pot mechanism in place, it's possible they traced the hack back to Vijay, but without his computer it's impossible to see which sites he was accessing that day. Everyone assumed his phone was destroyed in the explosion, it never turned up anywhere." Nita didn't try to deny what they had been up to.

"Did you try to hack the accounts yourself?" Jane didn't doubt she was capable of it.

"Not at first, but when I came back to the USA I was determined to carry on the fight. It was too dangerous to use my own computer, so I'd go to libraries and internet cafes to work, sometimes I'd wear a Hijab to help disguise my appearance." Despite the potential illegality of it, Nita rightly guessed the CBI weren't interested in pursuing that.

"Why wouldn't you let Walter help you?" Jane gently enquired.

"Vijay tried so hard to impress Walter, he pushed himself too much. For a long time I blamed Walter for that, but I began to realise it was Vijay's nature and he would always push himself. It took me a few years to get that stage. Walter had always kept me apprised of his own investigations through a third party, and kept a line of communication open. Then we unexpectedly met at a conference and got talking, and I realised we could do much more working together than working independently." Nita was ultimately a pragmatist.

"I assume you haven't given up your investigations. Is there any chance that something you've done could be traced back to VA?" Jane watched Nita closely.

Nita looked down at the desk guiltily "I may have used my work notebook from time to time. Are you suggesting the two events are linked?"

"Who knows? But there is a clear conflict of interest between a company making Zero Emissions Vehicles and an Oil Oligarch." Looking up to the observation panel Jane stated, "I think this is one for Van Pelt."

Nita looked crestfallen that her actions could have contributed to the problems at VA. "I've pursued so many different avenues of enquiry but most of them are quite general, there could be any number of possibilities."

"It's not your fault, anyone would have done the same." More than anyone Jane understood the imperative for justice and revenge, he locked eyes with Nita, who understood his meaning perfectly.

"How do you cope with it all?" Nita turned the question back on Jane, there was a hushed silence as everyone waited for his response. No one openly questioned Jane like that.

He gave a sad smile. "I don't know that you ever truly cope, but you latch on to something to keep you going. Besides you're never alone, the memories are always with you. We will find whoever killed Vijay, I'm absolutely sure of that now."

Jane stood up and left the room without a word, and disappeared into the kitchen wanting to be alone with his thoughts for a while. Even if he wasn't making much progress on his own account, he was comforted that he could make a difference to Nita. The fact that they'd established a tenuous link to a Russian connection was a start, with Van Pelt's ability to cross reference to ongoing investigations, and his own mental acuity, Jane was sure they could make a break through. The consultant was well away with his thoughts sipping his tea, when Lisbon quietly came alongside.

"Nita's with Van Pelt now, and Walter's left." Lisbon knew better than to allude to what had just happened, but her tone was softer than usual.

Jane's eyes crinkled with a smile, Lisbon was there for him in the same way that Walter was for Nita. Even when he didn't ask or want her help she just came anyhow, he inclined his head towards her. "Told you Walter was one of the good guys."

"How can you say that! He's broken goodness knows how many laws, encouraged hacking, laundered money, tried to influence a legislator and I dread to think what he did to set up Senator Burke." Lisbon's pitch steadily rose as she rattled off Walter's rap sheet.

"You'll never prove any of it, and most of it happened outside the jurisdiction of the USA. Anyhow you know exactly what I mean." Jane's lips quirked with amusement at Lisbon's embarrassment. Temporarily lost for words, she struck a hasty retreat.


	8. Chapter 8 : Winner Takes All

**Chapter 8 - Winner Takes All**

It was refreshing for Van Pelt to deal with someone who understood her technical jargon for a change, and she was soon able to shorthand the conversation with Nita, without the need for extensive explanations. Once Nita had seen the resources available to the SCU, she was soon itching to take control over the mouse and keyboard, if only she could have a free hand to explore further. Nita's eyes drifted across to Cho and Rigsby speculatively. First one would be too difficult to crack but the second... A flicker of a smile crossed her face. No, she had promised to play nice.

Nita watched Van Pelt like a hawk, memorising the menu options, and appreciating the mental dexterity with which Van Pelt processed the information. Grace's lateral free thinking allowed her to make quantum leaps from one train of thought to another without losing track of the original thread. If she ever fancied a spell in the private sector, Nita knew that companies like VA would snap up someone with Van Pelt's abilities without a second thought.

Their intense concentration amused Jane as they vied to control the direction of the search; they were completely absorbed in their task. He meandered over to Lisbon's office and casually leaned against the door frame, sipping his tea, while Lisbon affected to pretend she didn't know he was there. Her frown deepened the longer she tried to ignore him, until she eventually snapped. "What do you want Jane, I'm trying to catch up on some work?"

"Meh! That's not work you're just fuelling the insatiable bureaucratic machine. "

Much as Lisbon agreed with the sentiment, it didn't change the fact that the paperwork had to be done. Although admittedly she had learned to play the game these days; resorting to trotting out the same trite responses much of the time. Tiring of the task in hand, and knowing Jane wasn't going away she put her pen down. "So how are they getting on?"

"Might be worth telling Grace to change her passwords later." Jane observed pointedly.

"She wouldn't!" Lisbon exclaimed.

"If you say so Lisbon, but we both know how easily the CBI systems have been hacked in the past. They're hardly an impenetrable fortress." Admittedly they'd assumed it was an inside job, but neither had much confidence in the integrity of the system.

Lisbon shook her head as she looked over at Nita. "Just look at her. Behind that sphinx like demeanour she's every bit as bad as Walter."

"Strange how you always come back to Mashburn, you're obsessed." Jane deftly dodged the stapler coming in his direction.

* * *

The team assembled round the interactive whiteboard for a brainstorming session, to try and pull the information into a coherent form. As was his way, Jane only half listened to the conversation, preferring to study the printouts Van Pelt had given him, looking for anything that stood out from the norm. For all his skills even he couldn't divine an answer from the rudimentary information so far, he suspected the session with Van Pelt had been infinitely more useful to Nita than to the SCU. At least the information would mean something to her; they were definitely playing catch up. They just seemed to have random pieces of a puzzle, which were difficult to make sense of without knowing what the final picture was supposed to be.

It hadn't gone unnoticed by Jane that Hightower had attached herself to the group; for one thing he'd seen the change in Lisbon's body language, which was now noticeably more defensive. Rigsby had also taken the opportunity to grandstand some of his recently acquired knowledge, his voice was droning on in the background. Jane was tempted to cut short the performance, but wouldn't put him down in front of Hightower. Jane smirked at Cho's huff of exasperation; his normally inscrutable expression had been replaced by look of downright impatience.

The discussion hinged on who had a vested interest in seeing VA discredited, the affects of their activities were long reaching across a variety of areas. The state government had already recognised the potential shortfall in fuel duties if zero emissions vehicles caught on, and was contemplating a mileage tax in lieu of the existing sales tax on gasoline. Despite the need back to claw back some revenue, the state was generally forward looking in encouraging ZEVs. It was estimated that each ZEV saved around 2.7 tons of CO2 emissions per annum, so the potential environmental benefits were significant. Although it was impossible to quantify, the state also stood to gain from long-term health benefits, brought about by the improved air quality resulting from the reduced use of gasoline cars.

Inevitably the gasoline producers were set to be hardest hit with 14 billion gallons of gas sold annually in California alone, even a small percentage decrease in that would represent a significant drop in revenue.

The unlikely beneficiaries in the short term were the power producers, who estimated 5% of energy output might be used for charging electric vehicles. Although with the advent of more efficient and cheaper battery storage, the solar industry would soon be challenging the traditional carbon based industry.

Throw into the mix the established players in the ZEV market, who would happily see a competitor struggle. They were really clutching at straws when Van Pelt piped up. "Wouldn't self driving vehicles have the potential to upset bus and taxi cab services?"

"It'll never happen. Imagine the insurance implications of it." Cho had an instinctive distrust of things he couldn't control, for all his logic there still was an ingrained superstition about anything that smacked of modern day sorcery.

"It would be pretty cool though. Just imagine pouring yourself into your car after a night on the tiles and being delivered home. Can you be DUI in a self driving car?" Rigsby quipped, forgetting Hightower was sitting behind him. Lisbon just smiled and looked down, as Cho jerked his head to remind Rigsby they were not alone.

"Not that I would of course." Rigsby added quickly, grimacing at his slip up.

Hightower clearly wasn't impressed by any of this. "So basically we've got nothing."

"Well I wouldn't say nothing." Lisbon began falteringly.

Jane put his papers down. "Far from nothing, I'd say we have too much. For sure there are reasons why some of the above would be happy to see VA fail, but this still smacks of something personal to me. Chong was killed because he knew something, ergo the killer worked at VA, and the rogue car must have been programmed by someone at VA. Of course the killer may just be a small cog in the machine, but I bet whoever is behind this is known to Mashburn."

"That's easy to say, but where's the evidence?" Although Lisbon suspected Jane was right, they had to be seen to chase down all the leads, especially with Hightower breathing down their necks.

With that in mind, Lisbon suggested Van Pelt arranged to meet with Lucia at police forensics, where the hijacked car was being held as a precautionary measure to prevent any outside interference. She sincerely doubted it would get them anywhere, but the publicity generated by the incident demanded a response. Rather cynically Jane suggested Rigsby joined them, although he didn't specifically say it, he suspected Lucia's penchant for authority figures would be better served the big guy's charms.

* * *

Convinced by his theory about the personal motive, Jane determined to go off piste and follow his instincts. He had no doubt that Mashburn and Nita were currently swapping notes and planning the next step forward, so a surprise visit was in order to catch them off guard. Seeing Lisbon engaged with Hightower, Jane took the opportunity to slip out of the bullpen unnoticed.

By good fortune Jane arrived just as the subcontractor cleaners were about to let themselves in. He chatted away to them as if he belonged there, even venturing to suggest that the second floor washrooms may need some extra attention. Jane politely waved them through in front of him, insisting they went in first, before tagging on to the end of the group. It was a fact that if you did something with enough confidence, people rarely thought to question you. As the reception was unmanned at this time of night, Jane slipped into the elevator and made his way up to Walter's suite unchallenged, and more importantly unannounced.

Assuming the cleaning crew had turned up early, Nita and Mashburn just carried on working at the terminal they were hunched over, despite the sound of the elevator opening. With feline stealth Jane silently made his way over, making them start when he finally announced his presence by leaning over their shoulders to see what they were looking at. The initial look of annoyance on Walter's face soon morphed into a grudging appreciation that Jane had circumvented the security system.

Firmly but gently guiding Jane away from the terminal, Walter affably joked. "I can see we're going to have to review our security systems Nita. I'm not even going to ask how you did it." His warning glance in Nita's direction didn't go unnoticed, as she quickly closed down the active windows. Needless to say the screen contents had already been banked in Jane's memory palace.

Nita started to gather up her things. "I'll make my way out if we're finished for the night Walter. Goodnight Mr Jane."

"Oh, don't stop on my account." Jane said mischievously. Nita just shook her head with a smile as she made her way to the elevator, no doubt off to review the security footage to ascertain exactly how Jane had gained entry.

"I don't know about you Patrick, but I could do with some food. Fancy joining me at the Yacht Club for a meal?" Jane was an amusing companion, although you never knew exactly what he was going to do next. Walter had no doubt there would be an element of cat and mouse as each tried to gauge what the other one knew.

Jane surveyed the setting of the exclusive yacht club dispassionately, no longer impressed by the trappings of wealth. Gone were the days when he felt the need to impress people, long gone...

Although he still enjoyed the good things in life, especially on someone else's expense account, he was equally at home with simpler fare. Ironically Walter wasn't that different, both remembered their roots and had a healthy disdain for the institutions of private clubs. Naturally Walter's reputation preceded him and his peccadilloes were largely tolerated, his trademark sweaters only occasionally elicited the odd grumble about falling standards from the more formally attired old guard.

They chatted away at the waterfront table, enjoying a simple meal washed down with a good vintage wine, covering a whole range of subjects before Jane ventured to return to the matter in hand. "So Walter, you never told us how to came to take over VA?"

Walter stiffened slightly "Is this official Patrick?"

"Official no, I'm just nosy."

"It was just a business opportunity, an all too familiar story of a new company with great ideas and a great product, but they can't raise the funding to carry it through. With the cash flow problems piling up, there was a real risk of them going under, and they were more than grateful to see a way out."

"Sounds very convenient for you, so why were you worried about taking it over?" Jane noticed Mashburn's eyes narrow slightly.

"It only needed a change in political direction and the tax credits could be withdrawn. We needed to know the industry had a viable future."

Jane conceded that the forward thinking of some of the states had helped the industry no end, but knew that Mashburn was only telling half the story. "So you just took over the company and staff unopposed?"

Walter permitted himself a little smile. "Well, it wouldn't be fun, if there were no problems."

Jane made a mental note to get someone to look into that later, Walter clearly wasn't going to say anymore on that score. Walter played with his glass before turning the spotlight back onto Jane."So how are things with you Patrick, are you any closer to your goal?"

Jane sighed heavily not particularly liking the tables being turned on him. He grimaced as he tilted his head to one side. "You know how it goes, one step forward and two back, but we'll get there eventually."

"You've never thought of trying to move on?" Walter enquired softly.

Jane gave a wry laugh. "I'd be lying if I didn't admit it had some attractions. It's hard to see everyone around you having a life, when you can't. But I will see this through, come what may, but in the mean time there are always the finer things of life to enjoy." He tipped his glass at Walter appreciatively.

"What does Teresa make of all this?" Walter continued undaunted, ignoring the attempt at deflection.

"Like an eternal optimist, she hopes to step in at the last moment and change my mind. Lisbon has a naive but touching faith in the rule of the law." Jane didn't even know why was even talking about this, it wasn't territory he normally allowed anyone to venture into. However he guessed Walter was on his wavelength, in viewing the law as a movable object when the occasion demanded it.

"So when the time comes, do you think she'll try and stop you?" Much as Walter liked Jane, he had misgivings about Lisbon being used like this.

"Possibly, I'll just have to make sure she's not around when it happens." Jane tried to shrug off Walter's concerns.

Walter looked intently at him, weighing the situation up. "Some might say she deserves better than that."

"She does, but she knows the score. I've never hidden my intentions from her. Besides Teresa is her own woman and will make her own decisions." Only loyalty stopped him from adding that he'd never given her any reason to suppose that there would be a future afterwards.

Jane didn't want to say too much in case Walter got the wrong idea about his relationship with Lisbon. It would do Lisbon good to have a brief diversion with someone like Walter, neither would have any expectations and could move on without rancour. Lisbon was attracted to Walter's bad boy side, and Walter responded to Lisbon's independent spirit, he could have his pick of attractive women but few of them really engaged his interest for long. Lisbon was a challenge to be won round, and not just offered up on a plate to him.

Almost as if he was reasoning with himself Jane added. "Even if I were to walk away, Lisbon would still carry on hunting Red John. He murdered her friend and mentor. Come what may, either one of us will find Red John or we'll die in the process."

Walter had no doubt Jane was telling the truth, but the conversation was getting into uncomfortable territory and there was a sense of relief when their conversation was interrupted by the newcomer. "Hey Walter, we've got a game going on later on. Do you want in?"

Walter saw Jane's eyes light up. "You want to play Patrick?"

"It's a five grand buy in." The man looked uncertainly at Jane.

"He's good for it, put it against my account." Mashburn assured.

"Thanks, I'll pay you back Walter."

"I have no doubt you will Patrick."

The other players were good, just not quite good enough. Jane bided his time keeping a low profile, while Walter wrapped up the first session. While not possessing Jane's acute skills of observation, years of deal making instilled the knack of reading people into Walter. By the end of the first session Jane knew all the foibles of the other players, but Walter was more difficult to read. For sure he had his fake tells and was the master of misdirection, but it really was just a game to Walter, so he wasn't prone to outward signs of stress. By the end of the second session Jane was starting to get into the ascendancy, and one by one the other players cut their losses just leaving the two of them to duel it out.

Jane carefully pushed some chips across the table to Walter. "I believe this covers the buy in."

Walter nodded, knowing the gloves were off from this point. With neither man being able to fully read the other, and card counting being of little advantage, they were subject to the vagaries of the cards. Their fortunes waxed and waned in turn, the game was played with a playfulness and daring as each man tried to out psyche the other.

"A pair of fours. Really Patrick?" Walter shook his head as he gathered in his winnings after a protracted standoff. Jane just grinned back sheepishly, relishing having a worthy adversary for a change. A lesser opponent may have lost nerve and folded, handing him the win.

The losses were borne with good humour, and the wins with childish delight, there was still with little to choose between them when Jane glanced at his watch. Though both men could survive on the bare minimum of sleep, Jane had to factor in the return drive to Sacramento and a quick change of clothes, so he raised his eyebrow at Walter challengingly. "Winner takes all?"

"You sure Patrick?" Mashburn gave him the chance to change his mind, once they had started playing they would both play to win.

They traded cards, each playing their cards close to their chest, it was almost like flirting the way they exchanged coy looks and glances, and teased each other. Eventually both satisfied with their hands, it fell to Jane to say he'd see Walter.

"Sorry Patrick. Two pair, kings and eights." Walter lay his cards down.

A flicker of a smile crossed Jane's face as he showed his scoring cards, two pair, kings and eights. Walter sat back in his chair and laughed, it all boiled down to the kicker.

"Well?" Walter's Queen would be hard to beat, but he would never rule anything out with Jane, who still hadn't revealed his final card.

There was an enigmatic smile on Jane's face as he put his card face down on the table. "Congratulations Walter you win. Next time dinner's on you." There was a self satisfied smile on Jane's face as he walked away.

Walter looked puzzled - _Next time dinner's on you? W_ hat the hell did that mean? He leaned over and flipped the card over. Ace.

"Dammit Patrick, you won. What the hell did you do that for you bastard?" Walter muttered under his breath, before breaking out into a smile.

* * *

 **A/N** Definitely a filler chapter I'm afraid, the plot bunnies have gone on strike.


	9. Chapter 9 : Magic Carpets

**Chapter 9: The Magic Carpet**

Clutching her cup close to her chest, Lisbon slowly inhaled the aroma of the coffee, trying to kick start her day by whatever means possible. The empty sofa was bestowed with a belligerent glare. The absent consultant had disappeared the minute her back was turned yesterday, and was sure to have been up to no good.

Like a ticking bomb she made her presence felt, her black mood casting a shadow over the mood in the bullpen. Fortunately the team knew her moods well enough to keep their heads down when she was on a short fuse. Finally satisfied that everyone was gainfully employed, she gave a little huff of frustration before setting her lips in a thin line, and retreating to her fortress of an office.

As soon as she was out of sight Rigsby silently mouthed. "What's up?"

Cho just shrugged silently, naturally his thoughts fell to Jane, but he was sure if Jane had pulled another stunt they would have heard about it by now.

The ding of the elevator announced the arrival of the man in question. There was a surprisingly jaunty skip to his step, and he was just about to make his way to Lisbon's office when he saw Cho's warning shake of the head. Jane raised his eyebrows enquiringly in response.

Rigsby silently mouthed. "What have you done this time?"

"Moi?" Jane pointed at his chest innocently, keeping the silent conversation going he mouthed. "Nothing."

Van Pelt emitted a quiet snort of disbelief and raised a sceptical eyebrow. Jane held his hands up to protest his innocence, but the three pairs of eyes focused on him were not convinced.

Guessing Lisbon had been Hightowered again, Jane decided a pre-emptive strike was in order. Borrowing Van Pelt's pen he wrote down a couple of names on her pad, together with a request to do some background research. He was just about to walk away when Van Pelt's outstretched hand and cough caught his attention. Jane feigned innocence for a moment, before breaking into a smile and handing back the fancy pen that Craig had recently given her.

Steeling himself before the battle, he finally broke the silence muttering, "once more unto the breach dear friends..." Cho smiled knowingly at the allusion, wondering what game was afoot.

Jane leant round the door frame speculatively, ready to make a hasty retreat if the situation took an unexpected turn for the worse. "Greetings Lisbon."

"The Lone Ranger returns." She drawled sarcastically.

"Sorry Lisbon, running late. Had a hot date last night." Hah! That woke her up.

"You, date?" She laughed, at the same time feeling vaguely disquieted by the idea.

"Yep. Wined and dined in the finest restaurant, to say nothing of the scintillating company." Seeing Lisbon's face fall, Jane wondered whether he had pushed it too far. For all her bristling hostility it was obvious that she was at a pretty low ebb this morning. She emitted a little growl as she pretended to examine her papers, taking her time to mull things over.

Jane's eyes crinkled with amusement at her reaction, and he decided to put her out of her misery. "Walter is the most convivial host. You really should find out for yourself sometime."

"You were on a date with Walter?" She pouted in confusion.

Continuing in the same airy vein, Jane watched her reaction carefully. "Well Lisbon you can't expect Walter to be exclusive, not unless you make your intentions clear."

A scowl appeared on her face. "Surprised you could find a venue big enough for both your egos."

"Well we ate outdoors actually." Jane conceded. "But more importantly we've got a new angle to follow. Walter's been disingenuous about the VA takeover, there's more to that than meets the eye."

Walking behind her, he pulled her chair away from her desk, ignoring her flailing arms vainly trying to grab the receding desk, he reached over for her jacket. "Come on Lisbon, we've got people to talk to. Let's find out what Walter's hiding." Glad of any opportunity to escape Hightower's scrutiny, Lisbon put up scant resistance.

Jane followed her out into the bull pen, giving the team the thumbs up behind Lisbon's back to indicate mission accomplished. Jane grabbed the printout that Van Pelt held up and skipped behind Lisbon on the way out to the elevator. There was a collective sigh of relief in the bullpen that they wouldn't be walking on eggshells all day after all.

ooo000ooo

For all they tried to be relaxed with each other, there was still an unresolved tension between Rigsby and Van Pelt. The big guy did his best to put on a veneer of civility whenever O'Laughlin was around, but Rigsby watched his every move, just waiting for him to put a foot wrong. He couldn't decide whether his antipathy towards his successor was just down to jealousy, or whether it was rooted in reason. In so far as his IT skills permitted, Rigsby had done some background checks on O'Laughlin, but the guy just seemed too good to be true, NFL player turned FBI agent, good looking to boot - what was there not too like?

Van Pelt was obviously smitten, and Rigsby could hardly say anything having gone on a rebound dating binge, just to show Van Pelt what she was missing. However it did make for an awkward encounter on their rare forays into the field together. Professional as ever, Van Pelt did her best to ignore it by making light conversation.

Lucia was already waiting outside the facility when they arrived, although Van Pelt made the introductions it was clear that her male counterpart was the focus of attention. Van Pelt just rolled her eyes, whatever! It wasn't as if she was bothered anyhow.

Aware that the hijacked vehicle could be remotely controlled, they had specifically requested that forensics completely disconnect all power supplies. So it was disconcerting to see Lucia establish a connection as soon as she plugged her laptop into the communications port.

"Hang on a minute. How can you do that when there's no power?" Rigsby turned sharply to the forensic tech. "I thought you'd isolated everything."

"We did." The tech pointed at the power lead disconnected from the battery bank.

"The processor is on an independent circuit, so it still operates even when the main drive batteries are flat." Lucia explained.

Van Pelt huffed in frustration; forensics hadn't done their job properly again, all they could hope was that there wouldn't be any repercussions. Distrusting everyone at this stage, Van Pelt watched everything Lucia did to make sure she didn't try to pull the wool over their eyes. Lucia's frown deepened as she systematically worked through the directories. "There's nothing here."

"What do you mean there's nothing there?" Rigsby demanded.

"The routine used to hijack the car has been erased." Lucia showed Van Pelt the programme directory, which was just contained the default programme.

"How can that happen while the car's locked away?" Rigsby's impatience was making Lucia nervous.

"The prototype cars all incorporate mobile broadband, so we can still communicate with them when they are out of WiFi range." Lucia guessed it was an oversight not warning the CBI about that, but in their defence no one had asked them.

Although she was resigned to the outcome, Van Pelt dutifully insisted they check the communications log and sure enough there'd been some activity since the incident. Lucia confirmed the IP address was from a shared terminal in the research laboratory. They were still no closer to identifying the culprit.

Rigsby puffed out his cheeks. "Jeez the Boss isn't going to like this."

It fell to Van Pelt to break the news to Lisbon, who was remarkably sanguine about it all. Although they were obliged to chase down the lead, she'd never been particularly optimistic that it would be a productive one.

ooo000ooo

The relief at being out of the office, served to lighten Lisbon's mood in no time. Lisbon hated being made to feel like a subordinate in front of her own team, she felt it diminished her authority. She'd caught Rigsby looking between the two vying leaders, not knowing who was in charge. It was hard to weigh up Hightower's motives, while Lisbon didn't detect any personal animosity she just felt like she was a tool, to be used to control Jane.

Beset by an uncharacteristic lapse of confidence, she had started to question the team's ability to close cases without Jane. It was hard to argue against their record, but the fact remained that for all their contributions to the closed cases, the outside world just dismissed them as Jane's stooges.

It wasn't as if Lisbon hadn't known what she was taking on, her Faustian pact with the mercurial consultant reaped the short term rewards, but at a cost to her long term prospects. Likewise the other team members had the same black mark against them; over time even the most strait laced of them had fallen under his spell, and had even started to pick up on some of his tricks.

It was particularly galling being judged as having little intrinsic value in her own right apart from being a Jane whisperer. Lisbon really needed to prove, to herself as much as anyone, that she was still a good cop, capable of working independently without the puppet master pulling her strings.

She listened intently as Jane filled her in with Grace's findings, taking some comfort from the fact that even Jane had to rely on old fashioned detecting at times, even he couldn't divine a solution from nothing.

The two college friends, who'd originally set up VA, were now working on a new venture developing remote controlled drone transporters. The new venture was based at Sears Point, not far from their old stomping ground, with a nod to geeky humour they had christened it Magic Carpets.

Rather than risk losing everything, there had been no viable alternative to accepting Mashburn's offer, the competing offer being mysteriously withdrawn at the last minute. There was no bitterness towards Mashburn, more a sadness that they hadn't been able to see the venture through. Fortunately they were blessed with indefatigable enthusiasm and had no shortage of ideas to work on. So they channelled their considerable talents, and the proceeds of the takeover into setting up their fledgling company.

Jane immediately took a shine to the young inventors, who still looked and acted like overgrown students. Their sense of fun was infectious, and Jane who whiled away the quieter moments between cases by flying his toy helicopter round the bull pen, jumped at the chance of playing with a life sized toy.

Not only were the guys producing transporter drones, but they also were developing small people carriers, designed to ferry people round busy cities like air taxis. It all felt a bit too futuristic to Lisbon, like something out of The Fifth Element, she certainly wouldn't be setting foot in one of those damned contraptions. Needless to say Jane jumped at the opportunity to experience his very own magic carpet; grinning like a genie let out of the bottle he shouted. "Look no hands Lisbon."

As much as she tried to be serious, it was impossible not to be affected by his childish exuberance. Somehow it felt very apt to see her very own wizard floating 5 ft above the ground and doing a sweep over the test station. Amusing as it all was, Lisbon brought Jane back down to earth and got down to the serious business of finding out more about mysteriously withdrawn bid.

The failed bid had come from a company going under the name of Troika Holdings, both Jane and Lisbon instantly recognised the Russian connotations of the name. It transpired that the original group of investors had included Markham Shankar, and when he jumped ship at the last minute, the remaining two investors had been unable to regroup in time and were forced to withdraw their bid. There was little doubt that Walter had deliberately scuppered their bid, no doubt leaving two very sore losers. Of course it wasn't the first time that Jane had heard of Troika, having caught a glimpse of their profile on Nita's screen the previous day.

Irritated at yet another lapse of transparency by Walter, Lisbon decided that if he wasn't going to play nice they may as well keep the bastard on his toes. Lisbon still wasn't sure whether Mashburn was playing her, or whether his interest in her was genuine, either way nothing was going to happen on that front while Mashburn was still a potential suspect. Lisbon accepted he was no choir boy, but she couldn't afford any involvement while the case was still active. That would be the final nail in her coffin so far as Hightower was concerned.

When they turned up unannounced at VA they had to wait for the receptionist to track down Walter, eventually they found him at the test track. He was conferring with Dr Barker and Zach, poring over some performance statistics. Zach was standing back with his hands in his pockets, clearly playing little part in the animated discussion. Dr Barker's complexion was getting increasing florid as Walter underlined his point of view. Eventually a disgruntled Barker departed, still chuntering on about short cuts and procedure, just loud enough for Walter to hear him. Relieved at avoiding another grilling, Zach just grinned at the CBI agents as he followed in Barker's wake.

Walter took his time to join them, clearly irritated after his exchange with Barker and also less than happy at the unscheduled intrusion. Jane and Lisbon were admiring a particularly sleek sedan when Walter re-joined them, the epitome of charm once more."Fancy that one do you Teresa?"

"Yeah on my wages!" She laughed derisively.

"Fastest production car around at the moment, it beats a Porsche 911 and Lamborghini with 0-60mph in under 2.3 seconds." Mashburn caught Jane's look of approval. "Come on Teresa I'll give you a spin round the track. Stand back Patrick."

Despite her protestations about being there to work, Lisbon found herself strapped into the passenger seat. Walter leant over to check that she was securely fastened, lingering a little longer than was strictly necessary. Aware of Jane's eyes on them, Lisbon felt uncomfortable with Walter's proximity. Fully aware of the effect of his actions, Walter withdrew with a wolfish grin plastered over his face. Just moments before he slammed his foot on the accelerator, he warned. "Hold tight Teresa."

"I'm ready, whoaaa!" Lisbon's knuckles went white gripping the side of her seat as she was pinned back by the force of the car taking off. She could hear Walter chuckling in the background as the car whizzed round the track effortlessly. Not being the best of passengers Lisbon wasn't one for speed, but without having the engine noise as a marker, the speed displayed seemed illusory. Surely they couldn't be travelling that fast?

"You should try it out on the open road." Walter's eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Have you forgotten I'm an officer of the law?" Lisbon replied archly.

"I wish I could, but you keep reminding me at every opportunity." Walter sighed, and started to slow down as they headed to the pit stop.

"Very smooth Walter." Jane nodded approvingly as they got out of the car.

"Fancy a race some time - winner takes all?" Mashburn smirked in Jane's direction; neither man had alluded to events of the previous night, guessing Lisbon would not approve.

"I believe it's my shout for lunch." He waved invitingly towards his usual convertible.

"Sorry no dice, we're here to get some straight answers this time." Lisbon was wary of being sidetracked by another charm offensive, despite the treacherous rumble of her stomach at the mention of food. Jane could tell she meant business and just shrugged apologetically at Mashburn.

Mashburn narrowed his eyes guardedly as he leant against the side of the car. "So what exactly do you want to know?"

"Tell us about Troika - when three became two." Jane went straight for the jugular.

"Aah you know about that." Walter looked sheepishly at Lisbon. "A deal's a deal Teresa, you do whatever it takes, and we paid a fair price for the company."

"I thought we were going to stop playing games Walter." Lisbon looked serious for moment.

Mashburn paused before answering, guessing Jane had seen what they were doing last night. "Your Agent Van Pelt triggered Nita's memory. We had long since discounted them."

Lisbon looked incredulous "Seriously? You've stolen the deal from under their noses and you expected no repercussions."

"But it was such a long time ago. It's hard to understand why now unless Nita has inadvertently stumbled on to something." For once Mashburn's response had a ring of truth to it. Both Mashburn and Nita had assumed that recent events were a strategic attempt by some vested interest to discredit them, rather than an old adversary taking revenge.

"Well at least that proves you're on the right track." Jane was starting to smell blood, it wouldn't be long before their quarry was in their sights.

Buoyed by an unexpectedly rewarding day in the field, Lisbon was positively cheerful when she made her way back to the bullpen. The SCU team were chatting to Jenkins from Vice, but scurried back to work on seeing Lisbon exit the elevator. Assuming it was work related Lisbon enquired. "What did Jenkins want?"

"The Police Association have had an anonymous donation. They're going to be able to fund Garcia's new treatment after all." Cho responded.

The young rookie had been badly injured following a car chase and the standard insurance wouldn't cover the therapy that held out the best hope of recovery. Everyone was pleased for her, but Jane's slightly knowing smile didn't go unnoticed by Lisbon. She couldn't put her finger on it but knew he was involved somehow. She shrugged her shoulders, what the hell so long as some good came from it. Feeling more at one with the world after a day in the field, she settled down to the inevitable bureaucratic duties with good humour.


	10. Chapter 10: The Big Bang Theory

**Chapter 10 : The Big Bang Theory**

 **A/N** A slightly longer chapter than usual to wrap this story up.

* * *

Unsurprisingly Nita was still running a parallel investigation to the SCU's, although she wanted to reveal Chong's killer as much as anyone, her primary motivation was to identify Vijay's murderer and clear his name. Although she knew Walter would help however he could, Nita could see his regard for Teresa Lisbon starting to influence his thinking.

She smiled at the idea of Walter wanting something he couldn't have; he was like a spoilt child at times, once he'd seen something he liked, he had to have it. Cars, women, even businesses they were all the same; once Walter had set his sights on them he pursued them relentlessly. Nita didn't entirely approve of the way he lost interest once he'd won the prize. He was the same with businesses; he was only interested for as long as there was a challenge, the day to day operations were of little interest to him. She likened him to a swashbuckling pirate, delighting in plundering then moving on. It suited Nita nicely, she was the de facto CEO, although Walter remained the figurehead. At the moment there were still plenty of dragons to slay; he relished the challenge of taking on the vested interests and enjoyed developing his toys, but inevitably one day his interest would wane and he would seek new challenges.

Nita had a sneaking regard for the way Lisbon didn't let herself be steamrollered by Walter's charm offensive, despite the mutual attraction. Perhaps she knew he was just a passing ship in the night and didn't take him seriously.

Over the years Nita had become quite adept at reading people, but she was unable to fathom the exact nature of the relationship between Jane and Lisbon. She understood it was perfectly possible to have a platonic working relationship, but theirs seemed to be underwritten by a genuine fondness for each other. Their closeness would put off all but the most persistent suitors, only someone as supremely confident as Walter could cope with the competition of a devastatingly good looking best friend.

Nita understood Jane's position perfectly, not being able to move on with unresolved issues. Of course Nita didn't feel personally culpable for Vijay's death, but she did feel a burning desire for retribution, and until she saw some form of justice meted out, she couldn't contemplate moving on. However Nita felt the tide was moving in their favour now, it was only a matter of time before justice would be served.

* * *

The day had started brightly enough; glad of some news to feed to Bertram, however tenuous, Hightower left Lisbon back in control while she liaised with the hierarchy. It hadn't escaped Lisbon's notice that Jane had persuaded Van Pelt to undertake some research for him on the side. By now well versed in the way that Jane worked, Lisbon let them follow their instincts. For all she liked Jane, Van Pelt knew where her loyalties and best interest lay. Although they'd established a cordial working relationship, the young redhead still had a healthy respect for her boss, and would always make a point of copying her in on anything of interest.

It had fallen to Cho and Rigsby to investigate the finances of the VA research group, to see if they could throw up anything of interest. Lucia's salary didn't stretch far once her rent had been covered. As one would expect of a sensible young man like Franklin, who still lived with his parents, any spare money went straight into investment bonds. Predictably Zach was in some financial straits, it wasn't hard to guess the reason for that. Barker was comfortably off, as one would expect for a man of his position, apart from indulging in fine wines his transactions revealed he had not long come back from a vacation in the Cayman Islands. It was striking how few transactions actually went through his back account, apart from utilities Barker seemed to have few financial commitments, which immediately made Jane's ears prick up.

The atmosphere in the bull pen was decidedly lighter with Hightower absent, which no doubt contributed to Lisbon's greatly improved mood. Confirmed petrol heads Cho and Rigsby were drinking in Jane's description of Lisbon's spin around the test circuit. Van Pelt just smiled to herself, she knew more about cars than the three of them put together, but humoured them when they tried to impress her with their knowledge.

More importantly her research was starting to pay dividends, and she'd found a potential link between the Troika investors and Senator Burke, it was circumstantial at this stage but certainly worth further investigation.

Jane had that smug air about him that always managed to wind up Lisbon, he sauntered into her office and sat down uninvited on her sofa, swinging his legs round so that he could stretch out leisurely on his back.

Realising Jane was just trying to bait her into asking what he wanted, Lisbon played it cool and carried on working. She wasn't inclined to pander to his insatiable need to showboat, and left him hanging on a while longer. When the humming started, to try and break up her concentration she just smirked and ignored it, Jane was obviously getting impatient. Lisbon stretched her back before standing up and turning her back on Jane to make a couple of routine calls, ignoring the increasingly impatient consultant. Her eyes crinkled slightly as she heard the audible huff of annoyance from behind her.

With a sideward look at Jane, she started to tidy up her papers before reaching for her bag and getting her keys out. Still enjoying the game, she pulled on her jacket and slipped her gun into her holster, before raising an enquiring eyebrow. "Well are you coming?"

Jane pulled himself upright and wiped his hands down his legs."I thought you'd never ask. Do I need to ask where we're going?"

"I believe Dr Barker has some questions to answer." Lisbon blithely made her way out to the bullpen.

Jane collected his coat from his sofa, hissing "Judas" as he walked past Van Pelt's desk.

"She's the Boss." The redhead shrugged without apology, of course she was going to send anything they found to Lisbon.

Jane caught up with Lisbon at the elevator. "That was very sneaky Lisbon."

"It's called communication you should try it some time." She enjoyed the moment, it was rare she got one over on the consultant.

* * *

Although they'd phoned in advance, Dr Barker still kept them waiting for an inordinate length of time. Lucia had popped in and offered them drinks, no doubt welcoming the opportunity to see Jane again.

Finally Dr Barker strode in, with all the arrogance of a man who hadn't got time to humour mere government employees. Without bothering with the usual polite preamble he coolly lay down his terms. "I have another meeting in half an hour, so make it snappy."

Lisbon pulled herself up to her full height. "This meeting will take exactly as long as we want it to Sir. Unless of course you would prefer to come back to the CBI for further questioning."

A look of amused approval crossed Jane's face, Barker had put Lisbon's back up by keeping them waiting and she wasn't going to let him dictate the terms of engagement. With a disgruntled harrumph Barker took a seat, he was distinctly sceptical about the need for the meeting.

Jane started off in a conversational manner, not asking any questions, more making observations. "You have a difficult relationship with Mashburn. He provides the funding and the 10% inspiration and leaving you to do the 90% perspiration. It never used to be like this before the takeover, but there again it wasn't exactly a commercially viable operation then either. The opposing needs of commercial interests and scientific rigour can be hard to reconcile. Of course Mashburn's no fool, he understands the technical side even if he doesn't want to go into the detail. How much easier it would be to work for someone less hands on, who would afford you the respect that you deserve."

Barker's eyes narrowed, the truth of what Jane said was undeniable. His reaction, though barely perceptible, was enough to give Jane cause for the faintest smile and encouraged him to try and reel Barker in.

"The final straw would be finding out that Mashburn had turned half your team, and that their loyalties were divided. Yet their actions gave you the perfect opportunity to use their secrecy against Mashburn, the very safeguards that they had overridden gave you the opportunity to make your own unauthorised changes. You were the last person anyone would suspect, as you weren't supposed to know what was going on. But then Chong started to have his suspicions and started looking into things that were none of his business; it was only a matter of time before he told Mashburn. By their subterfuge they had given you perfect cover - how fitting that their own creation became the delivery mechanism for their downfall."

Barker started to shift uncomfortably. "Complete nonsense. This is pure speculation, you have absolutely no evidence to back this up." He knew all the evidence had long been deleted.

Jane turned to Lisbon. "Van Pelt was telling me the other day that you can never really delete a file, an expert like Van Pelt would soon be able to recover evidence if she looked hard enough."

Lisbon nodded. ""Computer files or remnants of files can be recovered months or even years after being deleted, using forensic tools."

Barker looked curiously unbothered by all this, Jane guessed someone as thorough as Barker would employ some form of encryption to protect any data. A change of direction was required.

"I hear the Cayman Islands are particularly nice at this time of year." With some satisfaction Jane noticed Barker lick his lips apprehensively, in anticipation of the new direction the discussion was taking.

"It's nice there any time of year - so what?" Barker countered defiantly.

"How much did Troika pay you to destabilise the company?" Lisbon went straight for the jugular, the direct approach was rewarded by a sudden change in Barker's body language as he crossed his arms defensively.

"You read too much pulp fiction Agent Lisbon, please don't waste my time with idle speculation. No wonder half the crimes in the state go unsolved if this is how you approach things." Barker continued to brazen it out.

"The problem is repatriating the money without causing suspicion. How do you do it bit coins, precious stones or property in your spouse's name? We haven't started looking yet, but believe me we will leave no stone unturned when we do." Lisbon knew they had got their man, even if they didn't have enough evidence to arrest him just yet.

"There you again, you haven't got a shred of evidence." Barker glanced impatiently at his watch. "Are we finished now?"

Lisbon stood up "For now Dr Barker but we'll be back, once we throw the full resources of the CBI at this it won't take long to get all the evidence we need. I suggest you find a good lawyer."

Jane leaned over conspiratorially, enjoying Barker's discomfort he added. "Oh and don't leave town."

As soon as the CBI had left Barker started making some calls. "There's been a change of plan. The package will be delivered in the next hour, be ready to collect."

Barker went over to Zach and tossed some keys to him. "I've passed off the latest modifications. Will you take this down to Mashburn at the test track and bring the other car straight back."

* * *

Lisbon and Jane had decided to split up, with Lisbon wanting to discuss Troika in more detail with Nita. Jane opted to walk down to the test track making the most of the weak sunshine. Caught up with his thoughts, he was taken aback when a car silently pulled up alongside him, apart from some faint road noise at the last moment, he'd been unaware of the vehicle approaching. Zach pushed open the door of the sleek sedan and offered Jane a lift. Jane's natural curiosity got the better of him and he hopped in. Although he would never swap his old Citroen, he was mightily impressed by the ergonomic design of the car and its impressive response when Zach put his foot down to try to show off.

In no time they'd reached the track, and Walter was there waiting for them. He swapped keys with Zach, who took one of the smaller cars back to the workshop.

"Impressive Walter." Jane ran his hands appreciatively along the sleek lines of the sedan, it oozed class.

"Hop back in Patrick and we'll put it through its paces while we talk. I just want to check out the latest updates." Walter knew that Jane wouldn't be fazed by speed, so he would give him a proper ride. Naturally they set out at a break neck speed with Walter checking vital parameters as they went round. "So Patrick this is obviously not a social call, are you any closer to getting to the bottom of this?"

"I'm afraid we are, and it looks like Barker is the mole in the camp. We haven't got enough evidence to arrest him yet, but we're fairly certain he's our man. If I may say so, you don't look particularly surprised Walter."

"Call it a gut instinct, I had nothing to go on but we've been watching him carefully over the last week. He hasn't put a foot wrong, but there's been something distinctly off about him." Walter's face was a picture of concentration as they whizzed round the track.

Jane's voice took on a surprisingly serious tone."Now Barker knows we're onto to him, he's a dangerous man to have around, Just don't take any chances."

Walter's face formed into a frown as he pressed down on the accelerator and nothing happened, the response was flat. "There's something wrong with this update, the car's not responding." A light on the dashboard started to flicker and the automatic locks clicked in place. "Patrick I think your warning came too late, we're already in trouble."

The hiss of gas came through the air conditioning and the two men tried to open the windows to no avail. As the car whisked them offsite, they remained semiconscious but slightly detached from reality, intoxicated by the slightly sweet gas.

Though aware of their predicament the two men were unable to take it seriously and were distinctly giggly as they lolled back in their seats.

"I think we're being kidnapped Walter." Jane stated the obvious with an inane grin on his face.

"No kidding Patrick." They fell into fits of laughter as a second wave of gas was released.

Jane closed his eyes, he felt dizzy as the car made a sudden turn towards the marina.

"This is another fine mess we've gotten into - let's try and call Lisbon." Jane tried in vain to focus on the screen, and coupled with his apparent lack of co-ordination it took him ages to find out there was no service anyhow. "Uh-oh, no signal." He started to snigger involuntarily, this was really serious but the normally ultra controlled Patrick Jane was unable to stop.

"Who's stupid idea was it to have cars with a mind of their own?" Walter slurred, slumping slightly in his chair at the next discharge of gas, but his eyes opened wide as the car started heading directly toward the open quayside. Even in his addled state, he knew they had no chance of escape if the car drove into the water. The car lurched to a sudden halt, and two henchmen came to drag them out of the car.

They grinned like idiots at the relief of being rescued from a watery end, even if the relief was only temporary. A voice with a thick Russian accent could be heard demanding answers. "I told you to knock them out, not take them to La La Land - what the hell did you give them?"

"Nitrous oxide gas Boss - it's supposed to be an anaesthetic."

"You gave them laughing gas, hippy crack - it wears off after a few minutes. If you want a job done properly, you have to do it yourself." Jane and Walter looked up as the man finally approached. "So Valter you cockroach, you've finally run out of luck."

* * *

On hearing Lisbon's account of their suspicions about Barker, Nita had no hesitation in ordering security to escort Barker off site. Cool and decisive she didn't wait for Walter's approval, so long as Barker was on site he was a potential danger. Security confiscated his laptop, phone and car keys, before calling for a taxi to take him offsite. Nita personally revoked his computer access, knowing her way around the system as well as anyone and wanting to make sure there were no loose ends.

Lisbon was impressed by her ruthless efficiency. In the spirit of Glasnost, and knowing that the CBI had the greater resources, Nita started to share what she had found with Lisbon, in the hope of some reciprocity. She wasn't entirely surprised when Lisbon revealed that they had found tenuous links between Troika and Senator Burke. Nita's thoughts had been going in that direction, although she had no hard evidence to support it.

After a while Lisbon looked at her watch, wondering what was keeping Jane. Perturbed when she got no answer from Jane's phone, her concerns started to mount when Nita tried contacting Walter to no avail. Nita had a quick look over in the direction of the track and saw no sign of either man or the test car.

"Looks like Walter has taken Jane out on the open road, but it's strange they're not answering their phones, we normally have good reception round here." Nita pulled up the security footage that showed the car leaving the track and she zoomed in on the windscreen. "Lisbon look at this, something's not right."

The video clearly showed Walter and Jane trying to open the windows and Walter's hands weren't on the steering wheel. 'They've been kidnapped' Nita typed away as she scanned her screen. "All the cars have tracker devices it looks like they're at the marina."

Lisbon nodded her thanks and went to leave, she was surprised to see Nita open her desk and pull out a Glock G26 and fit a magazine. "I'm coming with you." Nita insisted.

"This may be something or nothing, I can't take a civilian with me, I'll call for backup." Lisbon had no doubt Nita would follow, but there was nothing she could do about that. She didn't bother to ask whether the gun was legal or not, assuming Nita had got everything covered.

* * *

The car was abandoned when Lisbon got there, she tried the phones again but both went straight to voicemail. "Try Walter's boat." The unmistakable voice behind her said. Lisbon turned to see Nita had forsaken her usual work attire for more practical trousers and boots. As usual she had everything covered. Lisbon reached into her car trunk and tossed a bullet proof vest to Nita. "Just stay back. Don't get involved."

"Whatever you say Agent Lisbon." Lisbon didn't believe a word of it, but couldn't afford to be distracted at the moment. Nita led the way to the pier where Walter's new yacht was moored. It wasn't the biggest yacht in the marina by any means, but it's sleek lines certainly suggested it was one of the fastest.

There was no sign of anyone around, so Lisbon quietly slipped on board and followed the faint sound of voices. She silently edged her way forward, pressed flat against the side of the corridor, until she spied Walter and Jane tied up on the floor with what looked like a bomb in front of them. Both men looked worse for wear, they had clearly taken a beating, Jane looked to have fared the worst with a split lip still bleeding.

A hectoring voice was mocking them."So Valter you're finally going to pay the price for cheating me."

"It's just business Yuri, besides you got the girl so technically we're even." Mashburn countered.

Jane realised he was caught up in the middle of a long running feud between the two protagonists. All he could hope was that Lisbon had realised they were missing and had sent for reinforcements. Sliding against the walls Lisbon got ever closer, trying to listen in to the conversation to understand what was going on. From what she could make out there were just the three men on board for now, presumably more would appear when the Russian had finished tormenting his captives.

The yacht listed slightly and Lisbon heard the sound of motors running, the cockpit was out of sight so Lisbon had no idea what was going on, but she knew when the craft started to glide forward this was not good news.

She took some comfort from the fact that this clearly wasn't going to script, and the Russian started shouting out "What are you doing? I haven't finished yet." Lisbon quickly texted the team to tell them what was going on, as the vessel pulled out into clear waters.

Frustrated at having no response, Yuri started to make his way out to the deck, it wasn't as if the men were going anywhere. Lisbon quickly stepped in front of him both hands on her weapon "Yuri Bajoran you're under arrest, put your hands in the air."

"A woman Valter - you're being rescued by a woman?" Yuri laughed derisively then started to back away back into the cabin, his military training making him aware that she was unlikely to shoot first unless he went for his weapon. She advanced forward slowly, not allowing herself to be distracted by the sight of Jane or Mashburn, keeping her eyes firmly on Yuri. It was obvious Bajoran wasn't entirely sure what was going on, he was as surprised as anyone when the yacht seemed to slow down and the engines were cut.

They all waited expectantly as the footsteps approached and Nita appeared in the doorway, her gun pointed at Bajoran.

"I should have known you wouldn't be far behind. You and your husband could never keep your noses out of anything." Bajoran was less certain of Nita, she was a loose cannon and wouldn't necessarily follow the usual terms of engagement.

"I see you've returned to your favourite method - blowing people up on boats, just like you killed Vijay." Nita's voice betrayed no emotion.

"Shame you weren't with him, would have saved a lot of trouble." Bajoran stared defiantly at her. Nita stepped forward determination etched on her face.

"Nita don't do it!" Lisbon shouted.

"Well if I'm going to die, I'm taking you all with me." Bajoran had a small trigger device up his sleeve and before they could stop him he activated the timer and the bomb started counting down. While everyone stared transfixed at the bomb, Bajoran reached for his gun and took aim at Nita. Without thinking twice, Lisbon shot him down.

Without looking at Nita, she rushed forward to see if she could get Walter and Jane out in time but they were securely tied. Everyone was transfixed by the bomb there were just 90 seconds left.

"Which is the quickest way out?" She snapped at Walter.

"The way you came in out to the rear deck."

Turning quickly to Nita, Lisbon took control. "Get the engines running and start pulling off as fast as you can, we've got just over a minute to get rid of this sucker."

Lisbon leant forward to lift the bomb, and then she steadily made her way out to the rear deck with 60 seconds to go; if she got this wrong they'd all be blown to kingdom come. "Are you ready Nita?" Lisbon looked for something to weigh the bomb down but couldn't afford to let any more time elapse, so she threw it as far away as she could and ran to join Nita in the cockpit as they pulled ahead at full throttle. Counting down to herself she steeled herself for the explosion, a shock wave hit the yacht but apart from a few broken windows there was no major damage, they had got away with it.

Uncharacteristically Lisbon hugged Nita. "We've done it." After regaining her composure, Lisbon quickly inspected the stern for any damage before returning to check on Mashburn and Jane. She realised it must have been worse for them, because they hadn't known what was going on. A palpable look of relief at Lisbon's return, was written all over Jane's face.

Nita was already busy releasing Mashburn. Lisbon stopped in front of Jane and quickly checked he wasn't seriously injured. She knelt alongside him and gently wiped the blood away with her thumb to reveal a thick lip. "Couldn't keep your mouth shut eh? What did you say?"

"The rug." Jane moved his hand to the top of his head.

Lisbon glanced at Bajoran's bald head and the displaced rug. "Ah, that would do it - when will you ever learn?" As an afterthought she added. "What about you Walter, you OK?"

"I've had better days." He said wryly.

"Haven't we all." Lisbon laughed.

* * *

The powers that be were more than pleased with the outcome, Hightower and Bertram were lauded at City Hall. Lisbon was happy to take a back seat, content that the team was able to get back to normal again. It hadn't taken long for Van Pelt to find a paper trail linking Barker to Troika, both Barker and Senator Burke would be spending the foreseeable future behind bars.

Lisbon had only seen Nita and Mashburn briefly since that day, however she and Jane had engaged in a heated discussion about Lisbon robbing Nita of her revenge.

"How about next time I just walk away and let you get blown up to smithereens?" Lisbon snarked irritably, Jane's argument wasn't even logical.

"Don't be like that - you know I'm grateful, but it was Nita's right to have her revenge." Jane was trying to make a point.

"What and spend her life behind bars for a moment's madness, instead of being able to build a new life?" Lisbon just rolled her eyes in frustration.

"It was her choice." Jane continued defiantly.

"I'm the law and it was my choice." Lisbon had no regrets about her actions and would do it all again. The trouble was that Jane knew that.

Jane went very quiet. "When I find Red John, nothing and no one will stop me having my revenge. I need to know that you understand that."

Lisbon and Jane just stared each other out, their positions were currently irreconcilable. The next few days were a bit strained as Jane contemplated whether he should continue to work with Lisbon. They tried to put their differences aside as they had been invited to the formal launch of the new VA Sedan. The invitation had been extended to the whole team as a thank you for their part in wrapping the case up.

Lisbon was wearing one of her better pant suits as a concession to the occasion, and was looking particularly attractive that day. She sipped her mineral water as she watched Van Pelt and the boys poring over the sleek cars on display. Walter's offer for them to take some cars out for a spin on the track was accepted with alacrity and Zach and Lucia took the three of them down to the track for a test drive. Lisbon had no doubt who would win that encounter - there would be a few bruised egos to nurse later.

She smiled at Walter's approach, he was looking particularly dashing today, but curiously she found she could admire without wanting to touch. Any passing fancy had gone, she knew he sailed too close to the wind for her to form any serious attachment and sensed that the moment had passed for him as well.

Mashburn had seen where Lisbon's priorities lay on the yacht and accepted he was playing second fiddle to Jane. Enjoyable as a fling would be, Walter wasn't used to being a notch on someone's bedpost - he preferred to be the hunter not the hunted.

Jane made his excuses and went over to ask Nita for a dance. As a kindred spirit he was interested to see how she was coping with the aftermath. He had to admit she looked fine. "So how does it feel, are you ready to move on with your life now?"

"It feels strange, but at least the cloud has lifted from Vijay's reputation and I can tell his parents that he died doing something good." Nita felt she owed Vijay that much at least.

"But what about you, how do you feel?" Jane pressed, looking deep into her eyes. She had dispensed of her glasses to reveal her true self and there was a captivating elfin beauty to her. He pulled back slightly, it would be all too easy to fall under her spell; he'd always had a soft spot for tragic widows.

"I feel free Patrick, for the first time in years." Nita said without hesitation. She hadn't been responsible for Vijay's death, so she only felt regret, no guilt on that score. The more she thought about it, she realised Lisbon had saved her in more ways than one, it was enough to know Bajoran and his cohorts had been dealt with.

She knew exactly why Jane was asking these questions, but she wasn't driven by the same burning desire for bloody retribution. She understood Jane's visceral hatred of Red John would never be satisfied until he had hands on revenge. Nita glanced across to Lisbon, with a degree of pity. It was Lisbon and Jane's tragedy that they were bound on this thankless quest, that would bring no joy to either of them.

Jane put his head over Nita's shoulder as they danced, not wishing to reveal any more of himself to her. Lisbon had caught Walter looking over at the pair dancing. "Do you think she'll be alright now Walter?"

Walter gave a half smile, "She'll be fine now Teresa."

Teasingly Lisbon added. "I think you've met your match there, she's every bit as sneaky and devious as you are."

"And those are just a few of her good points." Walter joked. "What about you and Jane? I saw the way you looked at him."

" Me and Jane?" She squeaked "He's like the annoying brother you have to keep getting out of scrapes." Lisbon was saved by the bell and broke away to take a call.

Jane drifted over to chat with Walter."So what now Patrick?"

Jane pretended not to understand. "Now, first the oyster bar and a glass of your finest I think."

"What about the future?" Walter persisted.

"There is no future only the present." Jane said flatly.

"Are you sure Teresa knows that?" Walter raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"What are you Dr Phil?" Jane said irritably, the last thing he wanted was some cod psychology.

Mercifully Lisbon breezed over to them. "Sorry Walter, new case. Got to love you and leave you. See you around, and try and keep out of trouble, or at any rate don't get caught." Lisbon waved airily as she made her way out to the car park.

"Never say never Patrick." Walter said softly, as they watched Lisbon walk away.

Jane shook his head. "I wouldn't hold your breath on that front Walter." He patted Mashburn on the shoulder good naturedly before walking away. As soon as he was out of sight, Jane's face fell into a troubled look, never was very a long time...


End file.
